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We all know that smoking is an unhealthy habit for anyone.
Tobacco is an addictive and lethal drug, and there is no
doubt that it causes many serious health conditions and even
early death. Despite all that we know about the dangers of
smoking and all of the warnings that are constantly in the
media, tobacco is still a widely used drug. As HIV infected
individuals are now living longer, we need to take a serious

look at the long term health implications of smoking.

I won't try to go into all of the health problems caused by
smoking or smoking cessation methods in detail here, but
I'll provide some great links at the end of this article to
get you all thinking about quitting. My objective today is
to get HIV positive people thinking about the increased
dangers of health problems associated with the combination
of smoking and chronic HIV infection. You can get
information regarding medical terms and opportunistic
infections at TheBody.com
(http://www.thebody .com/index.html).

The only "good" news is that most studies have shown that
smoking, in itself, has not been shown to affect HIV
infection itself. Smoking does not affect the rate at which
the CD4 cell counts drop or how rapidly HIV progresses to
AIDS. Antiretroviral medications used to treat HIV are just
as effective in smokers as they are in nonsmokers. If you
can even consider this to be "good" news, read on to learn
about the specific risks associated with HIV and smoking.

Opportunistic Infections and AIDS-defining Illness: Smoking
weakens the immune system and interferes with lung
functioning. This leads to a decreased ability to fight off
infections, making HIV positive smokers more likely to
develop certain infections and AIDS-defining illnesses,
particularly those related to the lungs (such as PCP
pneumonia and MAC). Oral thrush, oral hairy leukoplakia, and
bacterial pneumonia also occur much more frequently in HIV
positive smokers. In women, smoking can increase the
severity of human papilloma virus (HPV), leading to the
increased risk of aggressive cervical cancers.
Chronic Lung Disease and Emphysema: Smoking causes a
constant inflammatory state in all smokers, and this effect
is greatly increased in HIV positive smokers. The lung
destruction and emphysema that occurs as a result of this
chronic inflammation is greatly accelerated in HIV positive
smokers; emphysema will develop more frequently, at an
earlier age and tends to be more aggressive and disabling.
Cancer: Smoking has been strongly linked to many types of
cancer, including lung,

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