Patients receiving optimal care for HIV infection can expect to live about as long as those who are uninfected, according to an updated analysis being published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

In 2007, survival estimates for persons receiving HIV care in the Danish HIV Cohort Study were encouraging, but fell short of the general population. At the time, a 25-year-old person with HIV infection not co-infected with hepatitis C virus would be expected to live about 63.9 years, which was still about 12.2 years short of that observed in a sex- and age-matched sample of persons from the general population. Using the same methods used in the previous study, the researchers estimated median survival for persons aged 25 years in 5 time periods from 1995 to 2015. They found that persons with HIV not co-infected with hepatitis C virus could expect to live about to about 73.9 years, compared with about 80.0 years for persons from the general population.

The authors attribute survival to receipt of optimal care. However, some persons with HIV infection globally lack access to care and treatment and many others are not reaping the possible benefits even when they do have access. The authors say that these issues should be addressed.