HIV and HIV treatment: effects on fats, glucose and lipids

Background: Since the advent of effective antiretroviral therapy, infection with the human immunodeficiency virus has been transformed, in the Western world, to a chronic disease associated with a variety of metabolic complications. Aims: This review provides a brief summary of our current understanding of the epidemiology, clinical presentation and therapeutic approaches of what is termed ‘the HIV-associated lipodystrophy syndrome ’ and of HIV-associated lipid and glucose metabolic abnormalities. Other metabolic associations including lactic acidosis, HIV-associated bone disease and the effect of the virus on other endocrine pathways are outside the scope of this article. Methods: A bibliographic search was performed using Entrez Pubmedw, edition 2.0, by the National Library of Medicine for articles only in th