Survival after diagnosis with AIDS-related neurological illnesses has improved since the advent of HAART, according to an abstract presented to the eleventh European AIDS Conference (EACS). Furthermore, patients on ARV regimens containing a higher number of drugs that crossed the ‘blood-brain barrier’ and got into the central nervous system (CNS) had better survival rates.

My concern started when an email with the monthly ‘HIV Newsclips’ arrived on my desktop. “People with diabetes at greater risk of HIV-associated dementia,” it said, and proceeded to outline research at the University of Hawaii where a higher percentage of positive people who had developed diabetes after taking HAART were showing signs of cognitive impairment.

It’s one of the scariest prospects facing HIV-positive people. The possibility of developing AIDS-related dementia or other brain and central nervous system diseases fills many of us with justifiable fear. Like mental illness, brain disease strikes at the very core of who we are.

p(standfirst). This ATPA fact sheet looks at the various neurological and psychological illnesses that affect people with HIV/AIDS including AIDS dementia complex, toxoplasmosis, PML, lymphoma and depression.

An Australian study has found that while people diagnosed with AIDS dementia complex (ADC) are surviving significantly longer due to improved antiretroviral efficacy, the prevalence of ADC has risen since the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).