SBS
Jason Thomas
Original Article: bit.ly/1xdjkrU
Rates of HIV infections are rising, but fewer people are dying from AIDS, data from the Kirby Institute for infection and immunity in society says.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), which leads to death without treatment.
The Kirby Institute’s Professor Andrew Grulich said an HIV diagnosis was no longer a death sentence.
“Generally, people with HIV don’t get AIDS anymore," Prof Grulich said.
The growth in HIV infections was 4 per cent for the average year during the decade ending 2013, compared to Australia’s average yearly population growth of 1.6 per cent the same decade.
Part of the reason for growing infection numbers included changing perceptions, Prof Grulich said.
Today HIV can be treated as a chronic manageable condition.
“In the old days a person who got HIV would die,” Prof Grulich said.
“New treatments are great. People stay alive for a normal life span.
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