A new study, that was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases found that cigarette smokers who are HIV positive have a higher risk of dying from smoking-related complications such as heart disease, cancer, lung diseases and other infections than from HIV,
Previous research shows that each cigarette shortens a person's lifespan significantly. HIV is a serious health condition. If untreated it can lead to AIDS, which is fatal. HIV affects the immune system making the body weak which can no longer fight off infections.
Current HIV treatments offer effective protection against the virus, but people who have HIV remain especially susceptible to the risks of smoking.
Compared with other smokers, they are more likely to experience:
Findings showed that in people with HIV who follow their treatment correctly, smoking decreases their life expectancy by about twice as much as HIV does.
For men with HIV, the loss of life expectancy for HIV and for smoking was similar, whether or not they followed their treatment regime.
The authors conclude that people with HIV who follow their treatment but also smoke are far more likely to die of a smoking-related disease than from HIV itself.
Co-author Dr. Krishna P. Reddy points out that even if a person smokes until the age of 60 years and then quits, they will have a significantly longer life expectancy than someone who does not quit.
"Now that HIV-specific medicines are so effective against the virus itself, we also need to add other interventions that could improve and extend the lives of people with HIV." according to Dr. Krishna P. Reddy
Dr. Keri N. Althoff, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, comments in an accompanying editorial: "This study makes clear that we must prioritize smoking cessation among adults with HIV if we want them to have an increase in the quantity (and likely quality) of life."
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