HIV-positive people getting heavier
By Brian Vastag
From San Diego, at a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
Exaggerated weight loss—wasting—used to be a hallmark of HIV infection. With the success of new medicines, however, that appears to be changing. In two hospitals, at least, people with HIV are becoming overweight or obese at the same rate as the U.S. population in general.
A survey of 663 HIV-infected patients at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., found that 63 percent qualified as overweight or obese. When diagnosed with HIV, 46 percent of the study patients were obese or overweight, and 72 percent of all the patients subsequently gained weight.