Just ran across a rather startling statistic in in an article from HIV Positive Magazine: 56% of HIV\/AIDS patients, who are enrolled in a Medical Management program where advisors constantly remind them to take their medications on time, are adherent. Only 38% of these patients are adherent when there is no program involved.<\/p>\n
\nThe \u201ccocktail\u201d of medications has become so effective in containing the HIV virus that patients have at least tripled their life expectance, maybe more than tipled. HIV patients used to have only 7 years of life expectancy, now it\u2019s 24 years or more. But adherence to the drug cocktail is the key.\u00a0 Dr. Dan Seekins, recently quoted in HIV Positive Magazine<\/a>, says, \u201c\u2026 it\u2019s fair to compare HIV to diabetes. You see the same thing with diabetes as you do with HIV: people who eat right and take their medications do well, and those who don\u2019t, don\u2019t. So I think that\u2019s a pretty fair analogy.\u201d \nThere\u2019s another side to this equation: Many HIV\/AIDS patients gave up hope of living out a normal lifespan, a long time back. Now, however, patients can achieve 24 additional years, and will likely soon find that they are living out the lifespan of a non-HIV person. Many of the patients in HIV\/AIDS programs are in their 50s; an age most of them had not considered reaching just a few years back. Many of these programs are instructing their clients that they have to consider other diseases as they grow older. They are being counseled to eat nutritious foods and to stop smoking.<\/p>\n
\nDr. Seekins went on to say, \u201cSeek treatment early, be fully adherent and have a good partnership with your physician. The adherence part is absolutely critical. Studies show that patients who take their medication 95 to 100% of the time have the best prognosis. It drops off fairly sharply after that. Even after years and years of undetectable viral load, if something changes the virus can and will escape rather quickly.\u201d
\n\u201cMedications don\u2019t work if patients don\u2019t take them,\u201d Dr. Seekins says. \u201cPeople feel better, they\u2019re working again and dating again, and they forget to take their pills. That\u2019s the biggest mistake you can make.\u201d<\/p>\n