CDC: Many AIDS patients diagnosed too late

ATLANTA, June 25 (UPI) -- Some 40 percent of people are diagnosed with AIDS within one year of receiving an initial human immunodeficiency virus diagnosis, U.S. researchers said.

The late AIDS diagnosis could make treatment more difficult.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Weekly Report said that an analysis of those diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus from 1996-2005 in 34 states reporting HIV shows that 38.3 percent of these individuals were diagnosed with AIDS within one year of receiving an initial HIV diagnosis, and an additional 6.7 percent were diagnosed with AIDS in the next two years.

The data indicate that far too many people are diagnosed with HIV late in the course of infection, when neither treatment nor prevention can have optimal benefit, CDC officials said.

Compared to whites, racial/ethnic minorities were more likely to be diagnosed late; higher percentages of people of all other racial/ethnic groups progressed to AIDS within three years after an HIV diagnosis.

Those receiving an initial HIV diagnosis at an older age were more likely to progress to AIDS within three years, as were men. Because progression from HIV to AIDS generally takes about 10 years without treatment, these findings underscore the importance of HIV testing early in the course of infection, when anti-retroviral treatments can have maximum benefit, the report said.