What Risk of Death Would People Take to be Cured of HIV, and Why? A Survey of People Living With HIV

Abstract

People living with HIV (PLWHIV) can reasonably expect near-normal longevity, yet many express a willingness to assume significant risks to be cured. We surveyed 200 PLWHIV who were stable on antiretroviral therapy (ART) to quantify associations between the benefits they anticipate from a cure and their risk tolerance for curative treatments. Sixty-five per cent expected their health to improve if cured of HIV, 41% predicted the virus would stop responding to medications over the next 20 years and 54% predicted experiencing serious medication side effects in the next 20 years. Respondents’ willingness to risk death for a cure varied widely (median 10%, 75th percentile 50%). In multivariate analyses, willingness to risk death was associated with expected long-term side effects of ART, greater financial resources and being employed (all P < 0.05) but was not associated with perceptions of how their health would improve if cured.

Reference

James K. Hammitt, B.R Murray, A. Kratka, K.A. Scherr, N. Eyal, J. Blumenthal-Barby, K. Freedberg, D.R. Kuritzkes, R. Edifor, M.N. Katz, K. Pollak, B.J. Zikmund-Fisher, S.D Halpern, M.C. Barks, and P.A. Ubel, “What Risk of Death Would People Take to be Cured of HIV, and Why? A Survey of People Living With HIV”, Journal of Virus Eradication, n. 5, April 2019, pp. 109–115.