AIDS drugs restore Africans' life expectancy

In the United States and Europe, antiretroviral drugs have changed HIV infection from an early death sentence to a lifelong but manageable condition. Many international philanthropies have contended that these medications could do the same in poor countries, and have aggressively negotiated lower costs to put them within reach of those in the developing world, where HIV infection rates are highest. But given the challenges to health and hygiene in such countries, it's not been clear that antiretroviral therapy would reverse the shortened life expectancies of the HIV-infected there as they have in the developed world.

By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times

July 18, 2011