Smoking kills AIDS patients sooner

‘€œA 35-year-old HIV patient had a median life expectancy of 62.6 years for smokers and 78.4 years for non-smokers; the numbers of life-years lost in association with smoking and HIV was 12.3 and 5.1,’€ the study findings read.

The study was conducted by a research team at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Between 1995 and 2010 they collected mortality data from 2 921 people living with HIV and a control group of 10  642.

The findings show that non-Aids related mortality substantially increased among smoking patients compared to those who did not smoke. The authors concluded that in a setting where effective HIV treatment is freely available, HIV infected smokers lose more life-years to smoking than HIV.

Sources: Clinical Infectious Disease, Daily Monitor

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  • Health-e News

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