Treatment News

Compiled by Gus Cairns

Gay men with HIV have near-normal death rates

A study of HIV patients in 24 countries by the UK Medical Research Council has found that gay men who don’t allow their CD4 counts to drop below 350 now have near normal death rates compared to the general population, even off treatment.

The study of nearly 47,500 patients in HIV clinics in the UK, the USA, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, found that gay men in this category only had a 20% higher death rate than other men in the same country and of similar age.

However the same study found that people who had caught HIV through heterosexual sex were still over three times more likely to die, and people who were (or had been) injecting drug users were ten times more likely, probably due to the influence of co-infections like
hepatitis C.

The study looked at patients who registered at least one CD4 count of 350 while off HIV drugs and monitored their death rates until they started treatment or died. Half of the group were gay men and about a quarter each heterosexuals and injecting drug users.

It found a total of 426 deaths in this population. Comparing these to expected death rates, it found 117 deaths in gay men where 97 would have been expected in the general population; 82 compared with 24 in heterosexuals; and 227 compared with 22 in injecting drug users. Women were about 25% less likely to die than men. The death rate went up as people aged with people in their fifties three times more likely to die and people in their sixties six times.

However the finding that, even off-treatment, a significant group of people have the potential to live near-normal lifespans can only be good news.

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