Long time ago, when there were no retroviral drugs and HIV diagnostic was equivalent to death sentence. Today this is not the case.
The scenario today is that those who are taking retroviral drugs on a regular way and how is prescribed by the doctor do not die.
Many times, HIV affects to people with other problems: drug consumers, alcoholics, ... By definition these segments of population are problematic, it's very easy they 'forget' to take the drugs and it's damn easy they develop resistant virus, so they have to change medication all time. Today there are a lot of good combinations of retroviral drugs, so they have a next oportunity changing the drugs they are taking... and this keeps going for a while until they totally fuck up.
It is true that some of the retroviral drugs do have side effects, but today there are combinations that do not have any kind of side effects that would cause significative problems to the users. By definition ALL drugs (even Aspirine) have side effects, but in many cases those side effects are not important if you compare with the benefits the drugs are giving you.