Is it true that if a person dies through AIDs?

Their bodies can't be used for medical research?

Some people say that because of the high risk of infection or transmission, the bodies of people who die because of AIDs can't be used in that way - they say it's some kind of new health and safety issue or something. Others say that the bodies can be used, but that no organs can be harvested.

Does anybody out there know the truth of the matter?

Also, and with genuine apologies in advance if this hurts anybody's sensitivities, how long can people survive once they have AID's and it turns in to the end stage?

I was under the impression that with new medicines and a better understanding of the disease people might get quite a few years to live. But very recently a young person I knew (very early twenties) died of AIDs - or a condition caused because of AIDs.

Dreadful thing.

That is a semi true myth. The bodies can still be used to study the effects of aid (comparing organs of a normal human to organs of an infected person, how else could the desiase its self and it effects be studied) and molds can be taken of the organs to replicate true life size models, some organs can be dried out, and other stored in containors for observation. If an AIDS or HIV patient dies there is still the abilty for them to help but things such as transplants and true organ dicetions are out of the question.

THE BODY OF AN AIDS PATIENT CAN NOT BE USED FOR TRANSPLANT AND IS NOT WANTED FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH DUE TO THE HIGH RISK OF CONTRACTING THE HIV VIRUS

they are used in aids research

To the best of my knowledge there are no post mortems for people who die in such a manner. The death tends to be aids related pneumonia and such.

no i don't think so but there can be used for research for the cure for aids and hiv

I'm sorry about your friend's death.

Bodies of people who were infected with HIV may be used in AIDS-specific research, but would not be used in general medical research. Transplantation of organs is out of the question.

The new highly-active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) regimens that have been developed are very useful in postponing the development of AIDS after HIV infection. After a person is infected with HIV the virus replicates and slowly diminishes their immune system. Usually after about ten years (although greatly variable depending on the health of the person infected and the particular strain) the infection develops into AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) once the immune system fails. HAART is most useful in slowing the progression of HIV infection to AIDS. Once a person has developed AIDS without treatment they would die in a year, but with HAART this can be extended several years or up to a decade. Even with treatment quality of life in this period can suffer.

Even with HAART HIV is still a very dangerous virus. Before modern treatment regimens, only about 30% of HIV positive people were still living 15 years after infection. With modern treatment, that has increased to about 65%. That still means about one in three HIV+ patients will die by 15 years after infection. About one patient in ten will die only 5 years after infection.

Some people have an excessively rosy picture of the effectiveness and tolerability of HIV treatment. There are people who have stopped using safe sex practices because they figure if they get infected, they'll just take the pills and they'll be fine. However, the HAART regimen is extremely inconvenient, requiring taking multiple pills per day, and for a young person who gets HIV death from an AIDS-related cause is inevitable.

Extreme care is taken with the bodies of patients who die from AIDS, and indeed from any infectious disease. There is in fact a section at the end of the death certificate that requires the certifying doctor to declare that the body does not represent an infection risk.