HIV Treatment

The paper, published Wednesday, found that 20-year-olds who started with antiretroviral therapy in 2010 are predicted to live up to 10 years longer than those who first underwent similar treatment in 1996 -- when it first became widely available.

Researchers at Bristol University in the UK said the improvements are due to fewer side effects and less toxic drugs with greater options for patients who are infected with drug-resistant HIV strains.

“I’ve got some bad news, and some good news,” says Eduardo Franco, president of Manos Amigas Por la Vida, a Venezuelan NGO that assists HIV patients in the central part of the country.

“The bad news is we still don’t know when the government will import Isentress,” he says of the life-saving antiretroviral medicine that many HIV patients depend on. “The good news is we have a donation in Colombia, but we need to get it across the border…and pay the National Guard.”