Our Medical Director, Dr Steve Taylor, has published again at the Huffington Post:
I’ve been fortunate enough in my medical career to see real improvements in the treatment options we can offer our HIV positive patients. In the early 1980s we didn’t even have a name for HIV; now we have a wide range of anti-retroviral drugs. We’ve made huge, rapid steps in our understanding of and ability to combat HIV. A patient properly treated now has a life expectancy of 30 years or more, and can live those years as fruitfully and successfully as anyone.
But people still die with HIV. There is no cure and treatment can be tricky. Patients can develop drug resistance, and often don’t even present themselves to HIV services until very late. One in four of those infected with HIV do not know they are infected! The people who are dying from HIV now are, in general, those who are diagnosed so far down the road that the effectiveness of our drug regimes is significantly reduced.
You can read the full article – and join in the debate – by clicking here.
