A new study which was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases has found that HIV positive patients who are continuously smoking despite their health condition are said to have increased chances of mortality. However, there's a catch, the study reveals that this increased death risk is due to smoking related complications rather than the HIV virus itself.
Nowadays, we already know that smoking in itself is a dangerous thing. A lot of smoking related health problems are associated with a high chance of developing heart disease, cancer and severe lung condition such as pneumonia. Experts have revealed that smoking causes dozens of cancer-causing DNA mutations since it was found that it has also evolved.
According to reports released by Medical News Today, once a person gets diagnosed with HIV, the virus is said to stay in the person's body affecting their immune system, and thus, it co no longer fight off infections. Through the study, it was found that more than 40 percent of people with HIV are smokers and 15 percent of it are said to be residing in the US. As a matter of fact, studies show that smoking is more common in HIV positive patients as compared to the rest of the total US population.
In one of their statements reported by NBC News, study co-author Dr. Krishna P. Reddy said that a smoker who was found to have started with the HIV treatment at age 40 can expect to live to be 65 if he's a man and 68 if she's a woman, they found. Doctors would estimate that life expectancy for those former smokers are between 71 to 73 years of age, while people who never smoked are expected to live to be 72 for men and 64 for women.
At the present time, the team calls for smoking cessation to play a major role in health care programs for people living with HIV. Furthermore, experts suggest that further research be conducted into the best way to help people with HIV to quit.
