by Snowflake

Created on: November 14, 2006   Last Updated: April 02, 2011

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

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