HIV 5-year death rate has decreased

LONDON, July 2 (UPI) -- People infected sexually with HIV seem to have mortality rates similar to those of the general population in the first five years, British researchers said.

However, the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said a higher risk of death remains as the duration of HIV infection lengthens.

Krishnan Bhaskaran of the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit, London, and colleagues evaluated changes in the excess mortality of HIV-infected people compared with expected mortality in the general uninfected population -- adjusting for duration of HIV infection.

Mortality following HIV seroconversion -- development of antibodies in blood serum as a result of infection -- in a large multinational collaboration of HIV seroconverter cohorts was compared with expected mortality, calculated by applying general population death rates matched on demographic factors.

Of 16,534 people with median duration of follow-up of 6.3 years, 2,571 people had died as of December 2006, compared with an estimated 235 deaths that would have been expected in a matched general population cohort.