European AIDS death rates plummet

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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

Glossary

person years

In a study “100 person years of follow-up” could mean that information was collected on 100 people for one year, or on 50 people for two years each, or on ten people over ten years. In practice, each person’s duration of follow-up is likely to be different.

nucleoside

A precursor to a building block of DNA or RNA. Nucleosides must be chemically changed into nucleotides before they can be used to make DNA or RNA. 

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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