Since highly active anti-retroviral drug therapy was made available to people infected with HIV living in developing countries, the HIV death rate has dropped in the first five years after infection to the point where it is equal to the normal death rates in the developing countries, a new report found.

“Our results show the progress in reducing mortality among HIV-infected individuals toward the levels experienced by the general uninfected population,” the researchers led by Kholoud Porter and Krishnan Bhaskaran of the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit of London said.

The findings are based on monitoring 16,534 HIV-infected individuals between 1981 and 2006. With the use of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART), which uses multiple anti-retroviral drug “cocktails,” there has been a decline in the first five year mortality to the same level of the uninfected population. Researchers estimated an 88 percent reduction in excess mortality in 200-2001 compared with the period before 1996.

By 2006, researchers said, “there was no evidence of any excess mortality to five years” among people infected with HIV/AIDS. The risk raises after five years of the infection, possible because people are less able to tolerate the drugs, researchers said. For people over 45, the raised risk was 5 percent at 10 years and 12 percent at 15 years. A higher risk of excess mortality was associated with older age and higher exposure to injection drug use.