People diagnosed with HIV when they have a high CD4 count likely reduce their risk of death during their first year of diagnosis if they start treatment promptly. Researchers studied data on 35,500 Chinese adults who were diagnosed with HIV between 2012 and 2014, had a CD4 count above 500 and were followed for 12 months post-diagnosis. A total of 790 members (2 percent) of the study group died during the follow-up period, for an overall death rate of 2.3 percent per year. Three quarters of the deaths were due to non-AIDS-related causes, most commonly cardiovascular disease. After adjusting the data for various factors, the researchers found that compared with those not treated within one year of diagnosis, those treated within 30 days had a 63 percent lower risk of death during the first year following diagnosis, and those treated within 31 to 365 days had a 26 percent reduced risk.