AIDS - Prognosis

At present there is no cure for AIDS. At one time, however, a diagnosis of HIV infection was thought to be a death sentence. Today, that situation has changed. The development of new drugs and new ways of using those drugs has made it possible to prolong the life of an AIDS patient. Since the introduction of drug cocktails (the combining of two or more drugs) in the treatment of HIV infection, the death rate from AIDS in the United States and other developed countries has dropped dramatically.

The situation is quite different in some countries because the drugs used to treat AIDS are very expensive. People who are HIV positive in developing nations are seldom able to afford the expense of taking such drugs. The AIDS epidemic is, therefore, still out of control in most parts of the world.