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A new study says that obesity can increase risk among HIV patients.
The study has revealed that antiretroviral therapy may not be as successful on obese HIV patients as it is with people of normal weight.
Researchers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, who carried out the research, said that the immune systems among obese HIV patients do not respond as well as it does among HIV patients with normal weight.
Nancy Crum-Cianflone, MD, who presented the study at the annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said, “Obese patients were found to regain fewer CD4-positive T cells after they start therapy than do people with normal weight.”
“These findings don’t align with some of the earlier studies done prior to the advent of modern highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), when patients who were obese did better than those of normal or below-normal weight.”
Data gathered by the USU’s Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program (IDCRP) from volunteers in the US Military Natural History Study, was examined as part of the research. The data had details of 1,119 people, including documented dates of HIV seroconversion between 1986 and 2008.
Captain (Dr) Greg Martin, Director of the IDCRP said, “The irony is that in the past we have been concerned that patients with HIV infection were losing too much weight.”
“Yet this research is showing that there needs to be more of a focus on maintaining a balanced weight without going to the other extreme.”
Previous studies had suggested that when HAART was unavailable, obese patients lost CD4 cells slower than people who had normal or below-normal weight. Crum-Cianflone noted that the introduction of HAART has resulted in immune system recovery, which is measured by a rise in the number of CD4 cells.
She concluded that the research also implies that low CD4 counts may be another unpleasant outcome of obesity.
