Obesity, not wasting, top worry for HIV patients
Two-thirds of those with virus have weight problems, study finds
Early in the AIDS epidemic, people infected with the virus often lost a dangerous amount of weight, at times looking gaunt and ghostly.
Today, they are facing the opposite problem. Many who have HIV, but not full-blown AIDS, are struggling with obesity, which has overtaken “wasting syndrome? as the top concern.
AIDS researchers and advocacy groups say the waistlines of HIV patients are growing right along with the girths of uninfected Americans as the disease shifts from a death sentence to a chronic condition.
Exact numbers are hard to pin down. But new research suggests that nearly two-thirds of the HIV population may be overweight or obese, mirroring the U.S. population.
Doctors say there’s a growing need to screen people with the AIDS virus for obesity, which raises the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol problems.
“We used to worry that they would lose weight and become wasted,? said Dr. Nancy Crum-Cianflone of TriService AIDS Clinical Consortium in San Diego. “Maybe we should redirect our concerns to making sure they are maintaining a healthy, normal weight.?
About a million people in the United States are living with HIV or AIDS, federal statistics show. At the height of the epidemic, many had wasting syndrome, the uncontrollable loss of 10 percent of body weight along with other symptoms like fever or diarrhea.
HIV has touched each cornerstone of our lives, whether or not we have it.
hiv, obesity
Leave a Reply