Treating HIV Today vs the 1980s: One Doctor's Perspective

Kathleen Squires, MD, Professor and Director, Infectious Diseases, Thomas Jefferson University; and study investigator for the DRIVE-AHEAD Phase 3 clinical trial, explains how HIV treatment has changed since the 1980s.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability):

“It’s been a sea change. In the 1980s, when we had very few drugs available to us, the time between diagnosis and death was a relatively short period of time. One of the best things that we could do for our patients was to help them to die a good death; to be pain-free, and [give them] whatever things that they needed to deal with it. But, now, we are in an era where, hopefully, we diagnose patients in the early stages of HIV infection. We get them on, in many cases, 1 pill a day, and the life expectancy, especially for someone who is diagnosed at a younger age, is almost normal. For someone like me, it really has been an incredible journey to watch this transition.”