Diabetes and Associated Complications in HIV Patients

Access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is increasing rapidly in low-income countries and HIV-infected patients initiate ART much earlier. As a result, these patients have prolonged life spans and, hence, longer HIV and ART exposure. Emerging data from developed countries suggest that HIV-infected patients have a higher risk than HIV-uninfected people of developing diabetes mellitus (DM) and other non-communicable diseases. The excess diabetes risk is probably related to multiple factors including HIV-associated inflammation, the use of some antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimens, and body composition changes associated with HIV and ART. As a result, HIV-infected populations may develop DM at a younger age and may have a higher mortality if management is not optimal as may be the case in resource-limited countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Most of the data to-date on HIV and DM are from high-income countries, and data in SSA are few and inconsistent. Because of differences in genetic composition as well as environmental factors including high burden of infectious diseases in resource-limited settings, data from high-income countries cannot be extrapolated and reliably used to improve quality of DM care among HIV patients in SSA. The objective of this study is to investigate if HIV, ART, and body composition changes occurring during ART use are associated with higher risk of DM as well as other risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in Tanzanian patients, and examine if HIV increases the risk of DM associated complications. This study is funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2021.