What Did The Research Involve
The researchers gathered anonymised data on 17,661 adults aged 20 and over who had HIV and had started antiretroviral treatment in the UK between 1996 and 2008. To be eligible for inclusion into the study, the antiretroviral treatment a participant was using had to include at least three drugs, as three-drug regimens are better than two- or one-drug regimens.
The analysis excluded patients whose records were missing important information such as their age, sex or ethnicity. The researchers also excluded people who, it was assumed, caught HIV through injecting drug use, as they are reported to have a worse outlook than other groups.
HIV infects and kills a particular type of white blood cell called the CD4 cell. This reduces the bodys ability to cope with infection. The number of CD4 cells a person has is a measure of how severe their HIV is, with fewer CD4 cells indicating more advanced disease. For this study, the researchers excluded people who had more than 350 CD4 cells in each microlitre of their blood. The authors report that current UK guidelines recommend that in most cases antiretroviral treatment should be started in symptom-free people with HIV once their CD4 count drops below this level .
What Does Progression In Stages Mean
There are many different types of dementia and all of them are progressive. This means symptoms may be relatively mild at first but they get worse with time, usually over several years. These include problems with memory, thinking, problem-solving or language, and often changes in emotions, perception or behaviour.
As dementia progresses, a person will need more help and, at some point, will need a lot of support with daily living. However, dementia is different for everyone, so it will vary how soon this happens and the type of support needed.
It can be helpful to think of dementia progressing in three stages:
These are sometimes called mild, moderate and severe, because this describes how much the symptoms affect a person.
These stages can be used to understand how dementia is likely to change over time, and to help people prepare for the future. The stages also act as a guide to when certain treatments, such as medicines for Alzheimers disease, are likely to work best.
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What Is The Average Life Span Of A Sea Turtle
The lifespan of a turtle varies widely depending on the type of turtle. For example, a typical house turtle can live for 10 to 80 years, while the largest species can easily live over 100 years. Sea turtles usually live between 30 and 50 years, and anecdotal records show they can live up to 150 years.
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Study Design And Participants
In a retrospective observational cohort study, we used data from the government-run Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital , Kathmandu District. This hospital has the largest ART centre in Nepal and is part of the National Centre for AIDS and STD Control, which develops policies and strategies related to HIV/AIDS and develops ART within the country. The national ART programme in Nepal comprises bimonthly follow-up visits from the medical team in support of ART treatment, the treatment of comorbidities, and estimation of the CD4 cell count every 6 months, viral load measurement 1 year after the initiation of ART, and other care and support. Demographic and clinical records on ART enrolment and vital or mortality records during follow-up sessions were obtained from electronic records, the ART register and individual chart records. People from around the country come to this centre for HIV diagnosis, care, support and treatment services. This centre has provided multidisciplinary services related to HIV/AIDS since 2004 and started recording data prospectively that year.
In this study, we included a total of 3191 eligible HIV-infected adults who received ART between 2 February 2004 and 29 March 2015 who had a record of follow-ups and who were aged 15 years or older at enrolment into ART. All the people who tested HIV-positive were monitored through their subsequent registration in the pre-ART register, ART register and individual chart records.
Whats The Outlook For Hep C Thats Developed Into Cirrhosis Or Liver Cancer
Hepatitis C can lead to cirrhosis, especially if left untreated. Without treatment, cirrhosis can lead to liver cancer and liver failure.
Treating cirrhosis and liver cancer typically requires a liver transplant. A transplant can cure both cancer and liver function impairment. But a transplant is only available for a small number of people.
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What Happens In The Later Stages Of Dementia
- Progressive loss of memoryThis can be a particularly disturbing time for family and carers as the person with dementia may fail to recognise close family members.
- Increased loss of physical abilitiesMost people with dementia gradually lose their ability to walk, wash, dress and feed themselves. Other illnesses such as stroke or arthritis may also affect them. Eventually the person will be confined to a bed or a chair.
- Increased difficulty communicatingA person with dementia will have increasing difficulty in understanding what is said or what is going on around them. They may gradually lose their speech, or repeat a few words or cry out from time to time. But continuing to communicate with them is very important. Remember, although many abilities are lost as dementia progresses, some such as the sense of touch and ability to respond to emotions remain.
- Problems eatingIt is common for people in the later stages of dementia to lose a considerable amount of weight. People may forget how to eat or drink, or may not recognise the food they are given. Some people become unable to swallow properly. Providing nutrition supplements may need to be considered. If a person has swallowing difficulties, or is not consuming food or drink over a significant period of time and their health is affected, nutrition supplements may be considered for consumption other than by mouth.
Who Is At Risk For Wet Brain
The group that is most likely to develop wet brain is those with long-term alcohol abuse. This is because Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome is triggered by a thiamine deficiency, which can be caused by overconsumption of alcohol.
This deficiency can also be caused by malnutrition, anorexia, AIDs, certain types of cancer, and specific surgeries. Therefore, even people who dont have an alcohol addiction have a chance of developing this syndrome.
A small fraction of the population is currency diagnosed with Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome, with the most vulnerable group being men aged 30-70.
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What Is The Average Life Span Of A Year
The average life expectancy of humans is about 49 years, with large regional differences and some gender differences, while women live several years longer than men. Maximum life expectancy is estimated at about 115,122, reflecting a decline in the death rate among people over 80 years old about every year.
Caring For Those With Dementia
Researcher Murna Downs, PhD, says most people dont recognize that dementia is a disease people live with, and not just a death sentence.
Downs research focuses on quality-of-life issues among dementia patients.
People with dementia live a long time, and we now know that there is a lot of awareness, she says. People assume that if someone doesnt know where they are they have no other capacity for thinking and feeling. But people with dementia continue to think and to laugh and to feel the rain on their faces, and to try to make sense of their world.
She adds that patients are often isolated because family members or other caregivers fail to recognize their need for interaction and stimulation.
The therapeutic potential of human contact cannot be underestimated, she says. You would never put a small child in a chair and let them sit there all day with nothing to do. Children need stimulation and human contact and so do people with dementia.
SOURCES: Xie, J. BMJ Online First, Jan. 11, 2008. Carol Brayne,professor, lecturer in epidemiology, department of public health and primarycare, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, England. MurnaDowns, PhD, professor in dementia studies, Bradford Dementia Group, Universityof Bradford, England Ferri, C.P. Lancet, 2005 vol 366: pp2112-2117.
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Living With Hiv: ‘the First Question I Always Get Asked Is: Are You Going To Die’
The virus was once seen as a death sentence. But life has changed for those diagnosed in the UK and one of the biggest remaining problems is social attitudes
When Claire Horn went for a sexual health check in April 2005, the last thing she expected was to be diagnosed with HIV. She was 22 and studying for a nursing degree in Leeds, and the check was part of the process for having a contraceptive implant placed in her arm. The diagnosis floored her.
I probably smoked and drank far too much over the next year, says Horn, who is now 36. It wasnt a good time. She says she knew a little bit more about HIV than the average person but not enough to allay her fears about its impact on her life. Did I know that the outlook for somebody in the UK with HIV was as positive as it turns out it is? Probably not.
Horn spent the year that followed learning as much as she could about the condition. She decided not to let it get in the way of leading a normal life, and has, for the most part, succeeded.
Today in the UK, when someone is diagnosed with HIV, they will start taking antiretroviral drugs immediately, to stop the virus replicating in the body. These drugs stop HIV from damaging the immune system and reduce the amount of virus in the bloodstream known as a persons viral load. When HIV can no longer be measured , the patient is said to be undetectable they cannot pass on the virus through sex and can have children without passing on the virus.
* Name has been changed
Factors That Reduce Life Expectancy
But there are challenges that can take back many of those gains. From an individual perspective, longevity is subject to numerous factors that can either increase or decrease life expectancy in a person with HIV. These factors range from things we can control to things we can’t .
Moreover, HIV is really only part of the long-term concern. Even for those able to maintain an undetectable viral load, the risk of non-HIV-associated diseases, like cancer and heart disease, is far greater than in the general population and can occur anywhere from 10 to 15 years earlier.
So profound are these concerns that a person with HIV is far more likely to die prematurely of a non-HIV-related illness than an HIV-related one.
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Why Do Elephants Live Longer In A Zoo Than In The Wild
When it comes to elephants in captivity, they have to think about what it could mean that they have a shorter lifespan than their wild counterparts. One of the reasons is the lack of family communication. In the wild, elephants live in groups of up to 100 individuals, and in zoos they are forced to live in groups of up to 2 or 3 individuals.
What Does This Have To Do With Life Expectancy
The problem is CCR5 has a bigger role in the body than just making people vulnerable to HIV.
It is active in the brain and in fighting off other infections, particularly flu.
The study, at the University of California, Berkeley, looked at nearly 410,000 people in the UK.
It showed those who had only the mutated version of CCR5 were 20% more likely to die before they turned 78.
“In this case, it is probably not a mutation that most people would want to have,” said Prof Rasmus Nielsen, from UC Berkeley.
“You are actually, on average, worse off having it.”
Fellow researcher Dr Xinzhu Wei said the gene-editing technology, known as Crispr, was still too risky to be using on children.
“The Crispr technology is far too dangerous to use right now for germ-line editing,” she said.
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How Is Life Expectancy Calculated
Life expectancy is the average number of years that a person can expect to live.
More precisely, it is the average number of years an individual of a given age is expected to live if current mortality rates continue to apply. It is an estimate that is calculated by looking at the current situation of a group of people and projecting that into the future.
However, HIV is a relatively new disease and HIV treatment is a rapidly changing area of medicine. It is therefore hard to know whether our current experience will be an accurate guide to the future.
At the moment, there are large numbers of people living with HIV in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and sixties. Current death rates are very low, resulting in encouraging figures for future life expectancy. But we have very little experience of people living with HIV in their seventies or eighties, so we know less about the impact HIV may have later in life.
Also, healthcare for people with HIV is likely to get better in the future. People living with HIV will benefit from improved anti-HIV drugs that have fewer side-effects, are easier to take and are more effective in suppressing HIV. Doctors understanding of how best to prevent and treat heart disease, diabetes, cancers and other conditions in people with HIV is improving. This could mean that people actually live longer than our current estimates suggest.
Facts About Hiv: Life Expectancy And Long
Overview
The outlook for people living with HIV has significantly improved over the past two decades. Many people who are HIV-positive can now live much longer, healthier lives when regularly taking antiretroviral treatment.
Kaiser Permanente researchers found that the life expectancy for people living with HIV and receiving treatment increased significantly from 1996 on. Since that year, new antiretroviral drugs have been developed and added to the existing antiretroviral therapy. This has resulted in a highly effective HIV treatment regimen.
In 1996, the total life expectancy for a 20-year-old person with HIV was 39 years. In 2011, the total life expectancy bumped up to about 70 years.
The survival rate for HIV-positive people has also dramatically improved since the first days of the HIV epidemic. For example,
, a person with undetectable levels of HIV in their blood isnt able to transmit the virus to a partner during sex.
Between 2010 and 2014, the annual number of new HIV infections in the United States fell by
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Possible Causes Of Death
With some diseases, you end up dying not from the disease itself, but from a complication related to the disease. This is true for dementia. Many people with dementia ultimately die from a complication of the disease. These include:
- Pneumonia: This is one of the biggest reasons why a person with dementia dies. They ultimately develop inflamed, infected lungs, which may be filled with fluid.
- Falls: Falling can be deadly for a senior citizen. Dementia can affect your balance and your ability to walk, so its not uncommon to see people with dementia struggling to stand up.
- Choking: Some dementia patients develop a form of pneumonia where food goes down the wrong tube. During the late stages of dementia, they may have trouble swallowing.
- Suicide: During the early stages of dementia, especially in the time immediately following a diagnosis, there may be an increased risk of suicide. Know that depression is an early sign of dementia.
- Bedsores: Prolonged pressure on a certain part of your body can create sores. In late-stage dementia, patients can find it hard to move or get out of bed, leading to bedsores.
- Stroke: This is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. In some cases, dementia can make the brain bleed, which increases the risk of stroke.
- Heart Attack: Having dementia may also increase the risk of having a heart attack. As with a stroke, the patients heart needs to be monitored to prevent a heart attack before it happens.
How Long Until Death?
What Can I Do?
What Is The Life Expectancy For Someone With Dementia
This is an incredibly difficult question to answer as there are many influencing factors, including the persons age and gender, the type of dementia and the stage of the condition at diagnosis. The average life expectancy after diagnosis for someone with Alzheimers, the most common form of dementia is 10 years. However, dementia progresses differently in everyone, meaning people can live anywhere from 2 years to 26 years after diagnosis.
The main way in which health care professionals estimate dementia life expectancy is by using the Global Deterioration Scale , also called the Reisberg Scale. It shows the average time someone is expected to live depending on which stage of dementia they are at.
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What Is The Lifespan Of Elephants In The Wild
Life expectancy in nature. The real life of elephants in the wild may surprise some. An elephant can live to be 60 or 70 years old. In fact, these creatures may be among the oldest mammals in the jungles of Africa and Asia. Factors that affect shelf life. Life expectancy in nature depends on many factors.
How Long Can Elephants Live In Captivity
The average life expectancy of an elephant in captivity is about 56 years. Of course there is no hunting, poaching or starvation in captivity. Animals also have access to veterinary care. Scientists attribute this to additional stress in captivity, and the elephants are not getting the exercise they need to lead a healthy lifestyle.
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