Cheaper nicotine patches welcomed

Cheaper nicotine patches welcomed

A peak Australian HIV body has welcomed a Gillard Government decision to list nicotine patches on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

The National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) has welcomed the move which will significantly reduce the cost of giving up smoking for health care card holders.

NAPWA assistant director Sean Slavin told the Star Observer making nicotine patches more available was a helpful step towards reduce smoking rates among people living with HIV.

“Smoking rates among people living with HIV are quite high, in some research, it’s as high as 50 percent of the population,” he said.

“The negative effects of smoking are well-known, but there’s also been some research developed in the past few years which seems to suggest that people with HIV are at greater risk of premature aging and co-morbidities such as heart disease at an earlier age than what the general population is. So giving up smoking is obviously very important.”

The measure will start from February 1, 2011 and will cut the price of patches from around $160 a month, down to around $5 a script.

Slavin said although there had been some study looking at the direct impacts of smoking in people with HIV, there could be more research in the area.

“It’s really only in the past few years we’ve started to understand how serious the issue of smoking is among people living with HIV, prior to that it probably didn’t get the attention perhaps it deserved,” Slavin said.

“People with HIV are at increase risk of cardio vascular disease and cancer, including lung cancer.

“There’s certainly good evidence now that people with HIV have an increase risk of those things by virtue of simply being HIV positive, so if they’re smokers on top of that the risk is increased so much more.”

Earlier this month Australian Medical Association president Dr Andrew Pesce said listing nicotine patches on the PBS would help thousands of Australians quit the habit and especially benefit people in lower socio-economic status groups who tend to have higher smoking rates than the general population.

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3 responses to “Cheaper nicotine patches welcomed”

  1. This move is to be applauded as it is well known that smoking impacts on the health of even the most healthy person. If over 50% of the hiv population is smoking it would appear to explain why so many hiv-positive people are living below the poverty line. This initiative should also slow the drain of money from charities who try to support hiv persons. Obviously if you forgo food in order to continue to smoke your health will be affected quite quickly with sometimes fatal results!

  2. That’s nice, Julia. And how exactly is your point related to smoking?

    I think any incentive to give up smoking such as subsidised nicotine patches is a positive move. I didn’t quit smoking via that method but it does work for some people (and incidentally, research indicates gays smoke more than non-gays) so I support the above initiative.

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