HIV patients get 25 years

The Associated Press reports that the study, appearing in the November issue of the journal Medical Care, indicates that both the survival rate and the health-care costs are more than earlier estimates. Bruce Schackman, an assistant professor of public health at New York's Weill Cornell Medical College, said the new information updates a 1993 report that put life expectancy for someone infected with HIV - the virus that causes Aids - at 10 years.

"They're [government officials] going to have to take into account medical advances that have extended people's lives," the wire service quotes Schackman as saying, in reference to the amount of money allocated for caring for someone with Aids.

The research was based on the medical records of about 7 000 patients being treated in 18 medical practices across the United States, the AP reports. – (HealthDayNews)

November 2006