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Posted on Jan 30, 2004, 5 a.m.
By Bill Freeman
Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), a cocktail of drugs given to AIDS patients, has slashed death rates from the disease by more than 80%. Researchers at Britain's Medical Research Council (MRC) say that AIDS death rates halved shortly after HAART was introduced in 1987, and had fallen by more than 80 percent by 2001.
Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), a cocktail of drugs given to AIDS patients, has slashed death rates from the disease by more than 80%. Researchers at Britain's Medical Research Council (MRC) say that AIDS death rates halved shortly after HAART was introduced in 1987, and had fallen by more than 80 percent by 2001. Before the introduction of HAART only half of AIDS sufferers could be expected to be alive a decade later, and for those infected in their 40s or later the prognosis was even poorer. However, results of the study suggest that nine out of ten people can now expect to live for at least ten years, regardless of what age at which they were infected.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 17th October 2003.
