A. Smoking is clearly a significant risk to your health and likely a risk to those around you as well. People with HIV may have some additional risk due to smoking. Many of the diseases seen in AIDS occur in the lungs. While writing this response, I am reflecting on an acquaintance with HIV who died not of AIDS but of lung cancer -remember, having HIV does not eliminate all the other diseases we are at risk for. I should acknowledge that I have never been a smoker and find the data on health risks of smoking quite convincing.
Smoking is a risk, as are many other things in life.
Each person needs to decide what risks he or she is willing to accept in his or her life and make choices based on that decision. I encourage persons with HIV to make a list of improvements they would like to make in their health. As you succeed in improving your health, cross items off that list one at a time. A. Selecting medications is extremely complex and you clearly need input from your doctor. Also important are prophylactic medications to prevent many of the commonly occurring opportunistic infections such as PCP, MAC and herpes viruses.