HIV life expectancy same as general pop - US study

This is an interesting study, however I'm not sure at the relevancy for Australians, will get to that shortly. First, the US study was done over time collecting data, and the results were somewhat surprising. It showed that those with HIV had an increasing life expectancy as they get treated with today's HIV drugs, to the point that now some people with HIV could expect to live longer than those in the general population:

Furthermore, life expectancy had improved dramatically between 2000 and 2008 for most groups. In non-white people, even though life expectancy for those on ART between 2005 and 2007 was still only 48 more years at age 20 – i.e. nine years behind US men and 14 years behind US women – this was a dramatic improvement since 2000-2002 when non-white people on ART could expect, on average, to die at 50 – a gain of 18 years. 

Life expectancy at age 20 had gone up 17 years in men, 10 years in women (though notably, this had not improved since 2005), by 13 years in gay men, by 12.5 years in heterosexual people, and by 20 years in those starting ART at CD4 counts over 350 cells/mm3. 

This means that average life expectancy at age 20 was now equal to US men in the general population, among heterosexual people with HIV and in white people. It was also a remarkable 69 years at age 20 in gay men and people starting ART before 350 cells/mm3 – meaning that, if nothing else changed, these groups, as long as they stay on ART, have a 50/50 chance of seeing their 89th birthday – a full seven years longer than women in the general US population. more

Which all sounds bloody marvelous darlings. Until you try and apply those findings to another country, like Australia. The main problem I have with it is that there's a pretty big gap between an Australian's life expectancy in the general population at age 20, than a US citizen's life expectancy at 20. 

I came across this useful online tool, where you can put in the gender and age and it lists the countries of the world. The higher the life expectancy, the closer to the top of the list, and the lower life expectancy the lower on the list. I put in "male" as gender and at age 20, as the article describes. If you do that you'll be looking at the same thing I am right now.

It can be seen then where each country is placed, for a 20 year old male's life expectancy in each country. Australia is doing pretty good, coming in at 7th with a life expectancy of 80.7 years. However (and this is where the numbers from the above study would fall down if applied to Australia) the US is way down the list at 38th position, with a life expectancy of only 77.1 years. A full three and a half years below Australia's.

So in summary, it's an interesting study but one that can only be applied to the US population it studied. Encouraging news though. I've often been informed that my life expectancy is likely the same now as those without HIV. I would suggest that this study proves it.