As we have been regularly counseling our HIV Positive Clients to stop Alcohol use due to the negative effects it can have on their health, more evidence is coming up supporting this fact.
A recent study published by the Current HIV Research Journal shows that "the combined insult of alcohol abuse and HIV affects organ systems,including the central nervous system, the immune system, the liver, heart, and lungs, and the musculoskeletal system"- Molina et al, Biomedical Consequences of Alcohol Use Disorders in the HIV-Infected Host, Current HIV Research, 2014, 12, 265-275.
The study goes on to point out that Alcohol impacts immunomodulation, erosion of lean body mass associated with AIDS wasting, and lipodystrophy.
The authors conclude that interventions focused on reducing or avoiding alcohol abuse are likely to be important in decreasing morbidity and improving outcomes in people living with HIV/AIDS.
This article can be found at http://benthamscience.com/journal/abstracts.php?journalID=chivr&articleID=123489#
The reason I have brought up this article is due to the fact that in our HIV care and treatment clinics we have so many HIV positive clients who are alcoholics and sometimes we wonder why they are not doing fine and deteriorating. Sometimes we have clients who are not just doing fine and we just do not have a direct answer to what could be the reason for their poor progress. This brings us to the task of spending more time with the clients who are not doing fine clinically and dig deep through thorough history taking and even questioning treatment supporters and family members. This way we will serve the lives of so many of our clients.
I welcome you all for discussion.
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