How long is someone with HIV aids expected to live after diagnoses?

HIV: the same as anyone who doesn't have it.
AIDS: you have to have HIV first, before you can contract AIDS. Depends on how they respond to treatment. But that's like the terminal section of cancer in HIV.

There are many factors that determine the life span of someone who is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Everything from treatment options to genetics, both an individuals and a viruses genetics. It is more likely, though, that someone who is properly diagnosed today with HIV only may never develop full blown AIDS, such as is the case with Magic Johnson. He lives with HIV, but has never contracted AIDS.

Of course, the best way to treat HIV/AIDS is not to contract the virus in the first place. Have sexual intercourse with one partner ONLY and make sure that that partner is HIV Negative as well. If you're going to shoot up drugs (GOD forbid!) then don't share needles with anyone else. You're much better off preventing HIV infection than trying to treat it.

it depends on if the HIV is active and depends on how resilient the person's emmune system is.

If they are in treatment and see a doctor regularly, most of them can expect to live close to a normal life span.
I know many HIV patients. Some have died, but some have had the diagnosis for over 20 years and are hanging in there. A lot of it can depend on the virus, but you have control over your lifestyle and your compliance with medical care.

years ago they would tell you no more then 5 years. I am proof i have been hiv+ for over 6 years. tell your friend to go to www.doeshivlooklikeme.org here there are stories of many young people myself included who share there personel stories.

okay well u can accually live a normal life with hiv if u cure it fast but if u know but dont cure it u could accually get it into aids and its harder to get it from a female and easyier to get it from a male

'MEDS' not 'HIV' - The real killer
Don't believe what the drugs companies tell you.

WITHOUT HAART 'MEDS"

鈥淭hese long-term nonprogressors [Hiv+ people who remained healthy] are a heterogeneous group with respect to viral load and HIV-1 responses鈥one had been treated with antiretroviral agents.鈥?

AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 12: 585 (1996)
鈥?Harrer, Thomas, et al, Aids Researchers

NOT ONE USED HAART

鈥淪ubjects: homosexual men in Amsterdam. 鈥淣one of the LTAs [long-term asymptomatics鈥損eople who remained healthy]鈥eceived any antiviral drugs during the study [7 years].鈥?

鈥淭en HIV+ people; 11-15 years infected; non-progressors [i.e., healthy]; maintained stable T-cell counts above 500. 鈥淭hese long-term nonprogressors鈥ll showed the same risk factor (sexual exposure), and all had...virus...and none had been treated with antiretroviral agents.鈥?

AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, 12: 585 (1996)
鈥?Harrer, Thomas, et al, Aids Researchers
Journal of Infectious Diseases, 171:811 (1995)
鈥?Hogervorst E, et al, Aids Researchers
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WITH HAART

鈥溾€hoosing between many of these [HAART] combinations is, therefore, increasingly dependent upon knowledge of antiretroviral toxicities...[which include] myopathy [gross muscle atrophy] (zidovudine [AZT]), neuropathy (stavudine, didanosine, zalcitabine; hepatic steatosis and lactic acidaemia (didanosine, stavudine, zidovudine); and possible also peripheral lipoatrophy and pancreatitis (didanosine)...drug hypersensitivity... lipodystrophy...[including] peripheral fat loss (Presumed lipoatrophy in the face, limbs and buttocks) and central fat accumulation (within the abdomen, breasts and over the dorsocervical spine [so-called buffalo hump]...[and prevalent in] about 50% [of patients] after 12-18 months of therapy...Metabolic features significantly associated with lipodystrophy and protease-inhibitor therapy include hypertriglyceridaemia, hypercholesterolaemia, insulin resistance...and type 2 ...diabetes mellitus. Dyslipidaemia at concentrations associated with increased cardiovascular disease occurs in about 70% of patients. These metabolic abnormalities are more profound in those receiving protease inhibitors...Most cases of diabetes have been identified in recipients of protease inhibitors...Anemia and granulocytopenia affect about 5-10% of patients who receive zidovudine...Virtually all antiretroviral medications can cause nausea, vomiting, or diarrhoea early in therapy...Diarrhea is probably most common with protease inhibitors...Most antiretroviral agents have been associated with hepatic [liver] toxicity...Most protease inhibitors seem to result in increased rates of spontaneous bleeding (bruising, haemarthrosis, and rarely intracranial haemorrhage) in haemophiliacs... 25-35% of patients cannot tolerate [AZT monotherapy] or triple combination therapy for 4 weeks...鈥?

Lancet. 2000 Oct 21;356:1423-0.
鈥?Carr A, Cooper DA, Aids Researchers

BLINDNESS

鈥淭his study was conducted to determine the likelihood of the development of [immune recovery vitritis, IRV], which causes vision loss in AIDS patients with cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis, who respond to HAART. We followed 30 HAART-responders鈥ymptomatic IRV developed in 19 (63%) of 30 patients.鈥?

J Infect Dis. 1999 Mar;179(3):697-700

CASTLEMAN'S DISEASE

鈥淩ecently, we observed an unusual cluster of cases of rapidly progressing multicentric Castleman鈥檚 disease. Fever, weakness, generalized enlargement of lymph nodes, and marked polyclonal gammopathy developed in three patients with AIDS...Two of these patients died within one week after the diagnosis, with generalized involvement of the lymphatic system, liver, and bone marrow at autopsy. A fourth patient with AIDS who died equally rapidly after the diagnosis of multicentric Castleman鈥檚 disease had been seen in our hospital 14 months earlier... symptoms鈥tarted after the initiation of highly active antiretroviral therapy in these three patients.鈥?

N Engl J Med. 1999 Jun 17;340(24):1923-4
鈥?Zietz C, et al, Aids Researchers
鈥?Karavellas MP, et al, Aids Researchers

DEATH
鈥溾€f the 70 patients studied, 84% were still alive after the 3-month study period...17 surviving patients (24%) had HAART regimens discontinued due to drug intolerance and 11 (16%) expired [died] during the study period...鈥?
J Pain Symptom Manage. 2001 Jan;21(1):41-51

NERVE DAMAGE

鈥淭he antiretroviral drugs currently licensed in the United Kingdom [June 1996] are zidovudine (azidothymidine [AZT]), zalcitabine (ddC) and didanosine (ddI). All three are nucleoside analogues...All are very toxic. Suppression of bone marrow elements can occur with any of the three, as can peripheral neuropathy [nerve damage].鈥?

Adverse Drug Reaction Bulletin. 1996 Jun;178:675-8.
鈥?Ellis C.J., Leung D., Aids researchers

鈥淎 decrease in mtDNA [DNA of the mitochondria; the energy regulating entities within every cell] content was found in HAART-treated HIV-infected patients with peripheral fat wasting in comparison with subjects in the control cohorts...Lipodystrophy with peripheral fat wasting following treatment with NRTI [Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor]-containing HAART is associated with a decrease in subcutaneous adipose [under the skin fat] tissue.鈥?

AIDS. 2001;15:1801-9
鈥?Shikuma CM, Hu N, Milne C, et al, Aids Researchers

鈥楾hese drugs are as dangerous as chemotherapy,鈥?
鈥? HIV patients presenting LD [Lipodystrophy, all taking antiretroviral therapy] and 5 HIV non-LD controls participated in the study鈥tructural muscle abnormalities, mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction or mtDNA deletions were detected in all HIV lipodystrophic patients. The mitochondrial abnormalities found suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction could play a role in the development of antiretroviral therapy-related lipodystrophy. 鈥?
AIDS. 2001 Sep 7;15(13):1643-51
鈥?Zaera MG, et al, Aids Researchers

鈥淐ombination drug therapy, or the triple-drug 鈥榗ocktail鈥欌€ften provokes severe side effects鈥?鈥楾hese drugs are as dangerous as chemotherapy,鈥?warned Dr. James Kahn, UCSF associate professor of medicine鈥︹€?
鈥?Science Daily, Sep 4, 2001

SEXUAL DIFFICULTIES - Body distortions

鈥淸Chapters in this guide to HIV drugs are entitled Introduction, Appetite loss, Body distortions (lipodystrophy), Bone death and destruction, Cardiac concerns, Diarrhea, Fatigue, Gas and bloating, Hair loss, Headaches, Insulin resistance and diabetes, Kidney stones, Liver toxicity, Muscle aches and pains, Nausea and vomiting, Nightmares, daymares and sleeping difficulties, Pancreatitis, Peripheral neuropathy, Skin problems, Sexual difficulties, The end]鈥?

鈥?A Practical Guide to HIV Drug Side Effects, CATIE, 2002

HEART ATTACKS
鈥淯se of protease inhibitors was strongly associated with the likelihood of having a myocardial infarction [heart attack] and correlated with diabetes mellitus and hyperlipidaemia.鈥?
Lancet. 2002 Nov 30;360(9347)
鈥?Holmberg SD, et al, Aids Researchers

A person with hiv or aids can live a long and ful life as long as they eat well , avoid drugs and alcohol, and is on meds when needed