From NPR:
By Richard Knox
The United States is doing a pretty miserable job of treating people with HIV.
The latest numbers show that only 28 percent of the nation’s 1.2 million HIV-infected people are getting effective treatment — that is, antiviral medications to keep the virus in check.
“This means that about 850,000 Americans do not have the virus controlled,” Dr. Thomas Frieden said during a media teleconference called by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to unveil the latest numbers on HIV testing and treatment.
The CDC director outlined a cascade of shortcomings that explain why the vast majority of HIV-positive Americans are untreated or under-treated:
*Twenty percent of them have not been tested, so their HIV infection is unknown to themselves or their doctors.
*Nearly 40 percent of the total — and half of those who’ve been diagnosed as HIV-positive — have not been linked up with HIV care.
- Sixty percent of those who enter care drop out.
- Only a third of all HIV-infected people get anti-retroviral therapy.
- Some people who get the drugs don’t achieve control of the virus.
That adds up to a lot of people who are vulnerable to declining immune systems and ultimately, the terrible infections of AIDS. About 17,000 Americans still die of AIDS every year.
Even in places doing the best job of testing people for HIV and getting them into treatment, there’s a long way to go.
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