Free HIV treatment reduces deaths in Malawi

The introduction of free HIV treatment in Malawi has reduced the number of deaths from the disease.

Researchers have gathered data since the opening of a free antiretroviral clinic and compared it to measurements taken in 2002. The results have been published in medical journal the Lancet.

Findings have shown that eight months after the opening of the clinic there was a ten per cent reduction in mortality rates and a 35 per cent drop among adults aged between 15 and 59 years of age living near the area's only main tarmac road. No change was found in mortality rates in people aged over 60 years of age.

The researchers found that the reduction in mortality rates in adults ranged between 15 and 59 years of age "suggests that deaths from AIDS were averted by the rapid scale-up of free antiretroviral therapy in rural Malawi", which led to a decline in adult mortality rate detectable at the population level.

Malawi has a population of about 13 million people and suffers from 80,000 deaths from Aids each year.

According to the World Health Organisation, antiretroviral drugs inhibit the replication of the HIV virus and, when given in a combination of drugs, can increase survival rates among sufferers.

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