OBJECTIVES: To review the changes in HIV in terms of course of the disease over the past five years and its consequences, to assess whether existing economic models in HIV would need to be updated to account for these changes in case these were used for the economic evaluation of new treatments in HIV. METHODS: A systematic literature review was carried out in PubMed, using both MeSH and key words, focusing on the following areas: opportunistic infections (OIs), health consequences, costs, quality of life, adherence and compliance and efficacy of treatments. In addition, current guidelines were identified and reviewed. For treatments we focussed on maraviroc, etravirine and raltegravir. RESULTS: At total of 1787 hits were obtained from the above-mentioned strategy. Finally data on 341 articles extracted. For treatments, data from six trials on efficacy and adverse event data were extracted and used in a meta-analysis (not reported here). In terms of OIs it was clear that fewer patients suffer from these infections compared to the early 2000s. Data on costs indicated that new costs were available by CD4 cell count. There are substantial new data available on quality of life in HIV, however, with several publications providing data by CD4-cell strata. Data on health consequences showed that patients increasingly live long enough to suffer from LT health consequences such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Guidelines indicated that treatment algorithms had changed markedly in the last five years and that comparison to OBT is no longer an acceptable comparator strategy in economic modelling. CONCLUSIONS: The management of HIV has changed substantially since 2006. Patients live longer, are healthier and suffer from “common” health consequences such a cardiovascular disease and cancer. Any health economic model in this disease area should take these aspects into consideration.