Heart health focus for AIDS Day

The National Heart Foundation of Australia is urging people living with HIV to learn more about their increased risk of heart disease and how to help prevent it.  

Heart Foundation CEO Dr Lyn Roberts said people living with HIV have a higher risk of heart disease than HIV-negative people and World AIDS Day provided a good opportunity to start the conversation about the risks of heart disease.

“Thanks to modern medicine, people living with HIV are living longer, with a life expectancy similar to HIV-negative people,” Roberts said.

“However, with age come different health challenges, as we now see people living with HIV experiencing other chronic diseases such as heart disease, which is the number one killer of Australians.”

Research shows people living with HIV have more than four times the risk of heart attack than HIV-negative people and it’s estimated that cardiovascular disease causes more than 10 percent of deaths among HIV-positive people

INFO: www.heartfoundation.org.au/hiv