People With HIV at Increased Risk for Slate of Noninfective Complications

Although access to antiretroviral therapy has rendered human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) a treatable chronic health condition, people with HIV are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, chronic airway disease, kidney failure, and other age-related diseases, according to a review published in Medicine.

“HIV has the potential to affect all organ systems, and it is important to consider the burden of noncommunicable disease in this population,” wrote Louisa Chenciner, BMBS, BMedSci, MSc (Hons), internal medical trainee at the Whittington Health NHS Trust, London, and Tristan J Barber, MD, a consultant in HIV medicine at the Ian Charleson Day Centre, Royal Free Hospital, London.

According to the review, people with HIV are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease. Over the past 20 years, the burden of HIV-linked cardiovascular disease is estimated to have grown threefold. Incidence of chronic airway disease, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and bronchiectasis, is also higher among people with HIV. Acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, and other types of renal disease are increased, too, in the patient population.

The review also addresses gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary effects, dermatologic conditions, hematologic and oncologic disease, neurologic effects, endocrinologic and metabolic conditions, psychiatric conditions, women’s health conditions, and frailty associated with HIV.

In addition to a slate of potential noninfective complications, social stigma is yet another burden people with HIV continue to face. Such stigma plays a role in health outcomes in people with HIV compared with the general population.

“Clinicians should incorporate an intersectional approach into their working,” the authors advised, “and focus local prevention and health promotion efforts to include underserved people with HIV.”

Reference:
Chenciner L, Barber TJ. Non-infective complications for people living with HIV. Medicine. 2022;50(5):304-307. doi:10.1016/j.mpmed.2022.02.012