Smoking Aids patients are more vulnerable to death
According to a recent report, people living with HIV and smoke are more likely to die from smoking than HIV. FILE PHOTO
What you need to know:
According to the report, HIV infected smokers lose more life-years to smoking than HIV.
HIV/Aids patients who access good treatment but continue smoking are more vulnerable to death from tobacco consumption than from the virus, a recent study indicates.
The study released last month by the department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Copenhagen Hospital, was dubbed ‘Mortality Attributable to Smoking among HIV-1–Infected Individuals: A Nationwide, Population-Based Cohort Study.’
The research was conducted between 1995 and 2010, and involved 2,921 people living with HIV. The findings show that non-Aids related mortality substantially increased among smoking patients compared to those who did not smoke.
“A 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 finding reads in part.
The authors concluded that in a setting where HIV care is well organised and antiretroviral therapy is free of charge, HIV infected smokers lose more life-years to smoking than HIV.
The numbers
The 2012 World Health Organisation report on Uganda indicates that at least 28.5 per cent of Ugandans smoke tobacco. It added that tobacco use is estimated to kill six million people every year globally–more than tuberculosis, HIV/Aids and malaria combined. By 2030, the death toll will exceed eight million a year.
Anti-smoking advocates are already working with some parliamentarians to establish a law that will regulate the use and consumption of tobacco products.
However, an official from the Centre for Tobacco Control in Africa, who preferred not to be quoted because she was not authorised to speak for the Centre, said the centre is working with the Ministry of Health and Parliament to ensure that Uganda gets a comprehensive law against tobacco use.
