30 years of AIDS

The month of June marked 30 years since the first medical article about a virtually unknown disease, eventually known as AIDS, was published.

The article, published in June 1981, concerned a group of gay men in Los Angeles who had died from a form of pneumonia normally associated with people whose immune systems had collapsed.

Over the past three decades there have been at least 30 million AIDS-related deaths and the number of infections has reached 60 million.

Today, medical advancements mean the disease is no longer the death knell it once was. In fact, for the first time the rate of infections and morbidity are in decline.

Ten years on from the UK’s first life insurance policy designed for people with HIV, cover is now widely available and affordable.

“These days, people who are HIV positive can, on the whole, be treated as having a general medical condition – and that’s a result of the statistics that have come out of medical research,” says Sue Clark, an underwriter at Kiln Life Syndicate 308. “It is a chronic condition which can be controlled so it isn’t such a difficult risk to insure these days.”

Timeline of HIV/AIDS

As the understanding of HIV/AIDS has grown it has tested the boundaries of medical science and fought various stigmas along the way.

Initially labelled a “gay disease”, it soon became apparent that HIV could be transmitted through the blood in various ways, including being passed onto children born to infected mothers.

Major breakthroughs came in 1983 with the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and in 1984, with proof that it caused AIDS. The first drug to fight the disease was introduced in 1987 and treatment has since come a long way.

Today, thousands of researchers are studying HIV, developing therapies, testing new antiviral drugs and exploring the possibility of a vaccine. In the 1980s, patients diagnosed with HIV were given months to live. In 2011, a newly diagnosed 20-year-old can expect to live for 50 more years if he or she is given the latest treatment in antivirals. Effective treatment can also help reduce the risk of passing the virus onto others.

But there is still a long way to go. In 2009, 2.6 million people became infected with HIV and 1.8 million died, with more than 90 percent of cases occurring in the developing world and two-thirds in sub-Saharan Africa. There are nearly 7,000 new HIV infections every day.

Infection elimination goal

World leaders pledged to eliminate HIV infections among children by 2015 at a United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS on 10 June. They also agreed to advance efforts to reduce sexual transmission of HIV and halve infection among people who inject drugs over the next five years.

The goals were set out in a declaration which notes that HIV prevention strategies inadequately focus on populations at higher risk.

“UN Member States have recognised that HIV is one of the most formidable challenges of our time and have demonstrated true leadership through this Declaration in their commitments to work towards a world without AIDS,” said Joseph Deiss, President of the United Nations General Assembly.

Insuring HIV

Lloyd’s insurer Kiln was one of the first life insurers to provide cover for individuals with HIV ten years ago. This was a huge leap forward for HIV-positive individuals, allowing them to take out mortgages and other financial loans requiring a life insurance policy. It also gave peace of mind to those with dependents.

Underwriting the risk was a considerable challenge to begin with, according to Kiln underwriter Clark. “It’s getting the long-term statistics, because the effectiveness of the antiviral treatment wasn’t really known and it does take a couple of years for the experience to come through,” she explains.

In order to better understand and accurately price the risk Kiln worked with medical advisors in the Netherlands and referred to research and statistics coming out of countries such as the US and South Africa.

“As antiviral drugs have been developed they have become far more effective over the years,” says Clark. “There are different types of antiviral treatment and the understanding of the condition and the way it progresses has been enhanced so we can write it far more confidently these days.”

Today, Kiln offers the same ten-year full life insurance covers to HIV sufferers as it does to other customers, as long as the virus is under control (although an extra premium may be charged). This is an affordable option and includes the extra security of cover for accidental death.

There is another product available for those who do not want to undergo lengthy medical exams. Harbour is specially designed for people with HIV and provides cover of either £10,000 or £25,000.

“For clients who are HIV positive and want full life protection or mortgage cover there’s no reason why they can’t apply in the same way as any of our clients and we are able to give them full life cover at a reasonable cost,” says Clark.

 

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