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Non-AIDS-related conditions are a
significant cause of sickness and death among people with HIV, in particular
psychiatric, liver, cancer, kidney and cardiovascular conditions,
HIVandHepatitis reports. Antiretroviral therapy, however, can lower the risk of
kidney and psychiatric conditions.
A Spanish study, recently published
in the journal AIDS, examined data spanning 2004 to October 2010 from the
Cohort of the AIDS Research Network, which is a multi-center cohort of
HIV-positive people older than 13 who are recruited in the HIV care centers of
the Spanish Public Health System.
The researchers analyzed data on
5,185 patients, 86.5 percent of whom were diagnosed in 2004 or later, including
13,306 person-years of follow-up. The incidence rate of “non-AIDS events”
(NAEs) was 28.93 per 1,000 person-years, compared with 25.23 per 1,000
person-years for AIDS-defining events. NAEs were more common in patients who
were older and who had higher viral loads and lower CD4 counts when entering
the study. More highly educated patients and those who contracted HIV through
sex were less likely to have NAEs. Antiretrovirals lowered the chance of
psychiatric and kidney-related conditions. NAEs were a factor in 28.9 percent
of the 173 patients who died during the study (3.33 percent).
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
