A report from the EuroSIDA cohort of Europeans with HIV
which appeared in the 28th November, 1998 issue of The Lancet
showed that death rates at the beginning of 1998 were a fifth of what they were
three years earlier.
Information was analysed from over 4,000 people. In the six months between
March and September of 1995 the death rate, given as the number of deaths
occurring over 100 person-years of follow-up, was 23.3. By the period between
September 1997 and March 1998, this had fallen to 4.1. It seems that this
improvement is due to the gradual introduction of combination therapy. Death
rates did not fall until after September 1995, the time when combining anti-HIV
drugs (usually double nucleoside analogue regimens) became more common. Rates
fell still further in later periods, after protease inhibitors were added, and
the lowest death rates overall were seen in those people who were on three drug
combinations.
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