HIV infection not linked with diabetes risk

According to a recent report in journal AIDS, HIV infection does not automatically increase diabetes risk . The results of the new research indicate that those people with HIV faced a lower risk of diabetes than those without HIV.
Researchers highlighted the reasons for this. Because of low body mass index (BMI) of those untreated HIV positive individuals the risk was recorded as lower. Improving immune status, antiretroviral drug treatment and hepatitis C virus were all seen as increasing risk of diabetes .
The investigators reportedly commented: “We believe that the net risk of diabetes mellitus is determined by a complex interplay of individual factors, with the traditional risk factors dominating the profile leading to an overall lower risk in HIV-infected persons.”
At this stage, the way in which HIV and diabetes mellitus are related is little understood. The researchers reportedly concluded: “we found that HIV itself is not associated with a higher risk of diabetes mellitus. In fact, after adjusting for traditional risk factors, HIV is actually associated with a lower risk. A return to a more healthy state with increasing BMI and CD4 lymphocyte counts was associated with a higher risk of diabetes . However, the magnitude of association with the traditional risk factors varies between HIV infected and uninfected persons.”