LOS ANGELES, March 1 (UPI) -- On average, people who become infected with the virus that causes AIDS lose about 16 years of life, researchers said this week.
And if a person delays getting early treatment for human immunodeficiency virus infection, that individual forfeits another 5.1 years or more of life, said Elena Losina, associate professor of biostatistics at Massachusetts General Hospital/Boston University School of Public Health.
"We also calculated that in addition to lack of early treatment, the same loss of years of life occurs if there is an interruption in treatment or if a patient is non-adherent -- that is, they don't take their medicine as prescribed," Losina told United Press International at the 14th annual Retrovirus Conference in Los Angeles.
She said that disparities in care among racial and ethnic groups in the United States also tend to impact life expectancy for people living with HIV infection. For example, Hispanic women lose 6.4 years of life due to lack of access to care or acceptance of care issues. White women lose as much as 4 years of life due to delays in seeking or adhering to treatment. African-American women lose about 5.4 years of life.
She said white men who become infected with HIV lose about 4.3 years of life due to failure to optimize, implement and adhere to treatment; African-American men lose about 5.2 years, and Hispanic men lose about 5.6 years due to treatment issues.
Overall, whites lose 4.2 years; African-Americans lose 5.2 years and Hispanics lose 5.8 years, she said.
Losina said she compiled her data from the National HIV Research Network, which provided U.S.-based estimates of race/ethnicity and the time of anti-retroviral initiation. She included in her model characteristics of a patient's immune system at the time treatment was sought.
"These are models of life expectancy," she said, "and there are always likely to be some individuals who do very well and other that do not do as well."
In general, she said men and women who are 33 years old can look forward to another 44 years of life. She said that 33 years of age is the median age at which HIV infection occurs in the United States. The group of people she and her colleagues analyzed ranges in age from about 25 to about 41.
"A person who is infected with HIV in that age range will have about 28 more years of life," Losina said. "While that is 16 years less than a person who does not have the infection, it is still fairly impressive when you consider that only about a decade ago a person diagnosed with HIV was given only about two years to live."
"The best way to avoid losing so much life is not to get infected with HIV in the first place," said Wafaa El-Sadr, director of the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs and a professor of clinical medicine and epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University New York. El-Sadr moderated a news briefing at which Losina's data were presented.
"This study shows how important it is to seek diagnosis and to get into early treatment programs, as well as to remain faithful to the regimens prescribed by your doctor," el-Sadr, also the chief of the division of infectious diseases at Harlem Hospital Center, told UPI.
