Cardiovascular Risk, Weight Gain, and Neurological Challenges in People Living With HIV | ID Week 2024

Even people living with HIV who have undetectable viral loads experience elevated inflammation levels, explained Michelle Cespedes, M.D., M.S., professor of medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Health System. Scientists believe this inflammation tells the body that something is not supposed to be there, even when HIV is undetectable.

Cespedes spoke at the session “Comprehensive Care for People With HIV: Navigating Comorbidities and Polypharmacy,” at IDWeek 2024, held October 16-19 in Los Angeles.

“We've known for decades now that people with HIV, living with HIV, actually have heart attacks and strokes — just like all Americans — but have it at a younger age than expected and younger than even some of the other risk factors that we know about should predict, risk factors like their family history [and] smoking,” she explained.

HIV medications don’t seem to be the biggest culprit for the reason people living with HIV have higher rates of cardiovascular events. But new data shows there might be an association with abacavir, which isn’t used very frequently and only in combination.

Cespedes also discussed research into the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists to manage weight gain in people living with HIV, as well as the neurological aspects that affect them to a disproportionate degree.