Estimated worldwide HIV infections: 51 116 929 at 9.40am on Wednesday March 12 2003.
HIV-positive women taking protease inhibitors are three times more likely to develop diabetes than HIV-positive women on non-protease inhibitor combinations or HIV-negative women, according to a United States study published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
Investigators assessed 1435 HIV-positive women and 350 HIV-negative women with similar HIV risk factors as controls to determine the relationship between diabetes and the use of anti-HIV drugs, virologic response to therapy, age and weight. Sixty-nine new cases of diabetes were reported among the participants.
The risk of developing diabetes did not seem to be linked to either virologic response to therapy or weight gain while on anti-HIV drugs. A virologic response to therapy occurred in 25% of diabetic patients, in 28% of non-diabetic patients not treated with protease inhibitors, and in 53% of diabetic and 52% of non-diabetic patients treated with protease inhibitors.