[pronut-hiv] The requirements and problems with providing free formula in Africa

["Rachel Stern" <sternworks@verizon.net>]

The following applies to the US, not to the regions where 
breastfeeding is risking mother-to-infant transmission. Nevertheless, the 
life expectancy cut short, and the liftetime costs of treating HIV are 
things to remember, and in my mind, a good reason to find practical ways to successfully use formula feeding when moms are HIV-positive. At least for now, until there's a cure or an absolute means of prevention. Right now, HIV is a lifetime infection, and these drugs are powerful and imperfect.
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HIV Life Expectancy
Is Extended to 24 Years
Associated Press
November 10, 2006 5:37 p.m.

ATLANTA -- An American diagnosed with the AIDS virus can expect to live for about 24 years on average, and the cost of health care over those two-plus decades is more than $600,000, new research indicates.

Both life expectancy and the cost of care have risen from earlier estimates, mainly because of expensive and effective drug therapies, said Bruce Schackman, the study's lead author.

The research found that the average annual cost of care is about $25,200 --  
nearly 40% higher than a commonly cited estimate from the late 1990s. The 
new research also updates other studies from the 1990s, when life expectancy for HIV-infected people was closer to 10 years. The study could influence how much state and federal governments appropriate for HIV and AIDS care and prevention in the future, some HIV policy experts said.

"They're going to have to take into account medical advances that have 
extended people's lives," agreed Dr. Schackman, assistant professor of 
public health at New York's Weill Cornell Medical College.

The study appears in the November edition of the peer-reviewed journal, 
Medical Care.

A 1993 estimate of life expectancy for a symptomless person infected with 
HIV was less than seven years. But since the mid-1990s, about two dozen 
HIV-fighting antiretroviral drugs have come onto the market that have 
essentially turned HIV from a death sentence into a chronic disease.