Assessing risk for cardiovascular disease in patients with human immunodeficiency virus: Why it matters.

Physicians who regularly see patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are commonly asked the prognosis of someone with HIV infection today. Although the estimates vary depending on the CD4 cell count and age at diagnosis, studies suggest that survival for most people with HIV is currently measured in decades, not years.1,2 For example, in one study from Denmark the estimated median survival from age 25 in HIV-infected patients without hepatitis C was 39 years. Indeed, these per-person gains in survival accrued from antiretroviral therapy (ART) are of a magnitude unmatched in treatment of other diseases.3