Why smoking is more hazardous to HIV patients than virus itself

Cigarette smokers who are Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) positive appear to have a higher chance of dying from smoking-related complications than from HIV, according to research published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Numerous health problems are associated with smoking. Smokers have a high chance of developing heart disease, cancer, serious lung diseases, and other infections, such as pneumonia.

Previous research has suggested that each cigarette shortens a person’s lifespan by 11 minutes, and that smoking from the age of 17 to 71 years will decrease life expectancy by an average of six and half years.

HIV is a serious health condition. Untreated, it can lead to AIDS, which is fatal. Once a person has HIV, it will never leave their body. HIV affects the body’s immune system, so that it can no longer fight off infections.

Current HIV treatments offer effective protection against the virus, so that people with the virus are living for longer, but people who have HIV remain especially susceptible to the risks of smoking.

Compared with other smokers, they are more likely to experience: thrush; white mouth sores; bacterial pneumonia; pneumocystis pneumonia, a dangerous lung infection; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); heart disease and stroke; and lung cancer and other types of cancer.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, projected the effects of smoking and HIV on life expectancy.

Using a computer simulation of HIV disease and treatment, the authors calculated the life expectancy of people with HIV, based on whether or not they smoked.

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.

Male smokers who started HIV treatment at the age of 40 years stood to lose 6.7 years of life expectancy, and women, 6.3 years, compared with those who never smoked. Men who quit smoking and started treatment at 40 years would regain 5.7 years of life, and women, 4.6 years.

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.

They call for smoking cessation to be prioritized for patients with HIV. Helping them to quit smoking could significantly improve their life expectancy.

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.