7th International AIDS Society Conference, Kuala Lumpur, June 2013:
In results from a study by the NA-ACCORD, researchers reported that the life expectancy of HIV-positive people on treatment in North America increased 15.3 years between 2000–2002 and 2006–2007. The study further suggests that a 20-year-old HIV-positive person who is on stable HIV meds is expected to live into their early 70s, which reflects a similar life expectancy of HIV-negative North Americans.
However, certain populations — including women and those who start treatment at a low CD4 count (<350) — showed less robust increases in life expectancy. Other populations such as people of color also did not fair as well, despite modest increases in life expectancy.
The study included 22,937 people, of which 23% were women and 62% were white. The overall life expectancy increased from 36.1 years in 2000–2002 to 51.4 years in 2006–2007. The researchers then estimated that a 20-year-old starting treatment in the latter period could expect to live to 71.4.
They also looked at specific populations. People who started treatment above 350 CD4s saw an increase from 48.8 years to 68.6, while those who started treatment below 350 saw an increase from 31.4 years to 46.9.
Although people of color showed a jump in life expectancy over time (29.7 years to 48.4 years), they still lagged behind men who have sex with men (53.3 years to 69.3) and white people (52.7 years to 56.9). Others, such as injection drug users, showed no improvement over these time periods (29.5 years to 28.8 years).