Surviving HIV

A comprehensive study quantifies a dramatic increase in survival chances over the past decade

People who contracted HIV through sexual contact during the 1980s or early 1990s faced an 8 to 23 percent risk, depending on age, of dying within five years of infection.

Now, that same risk is close to nil, a new study finds.

The sharply lower mortality risk stems directly from a combination of anti-HIV drugs known by the slightly misleading abbreviation HAART, for highly active antiretroviral therapy.