One is cholesterol. But fat also travels as energy packages. These are called triglycerides - transformed butter and ditary oils circulating in the blood.
Triglycerides have a cholesterol coating.
The stressor is uncontrolled infection. In this scenario, fat is circulating in the blood but not being burned up as fuel as it should. A triglyceride count in the 250-750 range used to cause a bit of a stir in medicine, because levels this high over a number of years increase the risk of heart disease. AIDS patients usually have low cholesterol levels, so a sudden increase may be related to a triglyceride problem. At worst they may watch high triglycerides provoke pancreatitis.