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Drugs and alcohol a danger to HIV-positive people

    JOHANNESBURG

    A Ugandan AIDS expert has suggested that addressing alcohol and drug abuse by HIV-positive people could prove useful in tackling the pandemic.

    The national coordinator for HIV testing and counselling, Dr Zainab Akol, warned that alcohol and drug consumption usually led to increased medical and psychiatric complications in HIV-positive people, delays in seeking treatment, difficulties with HIV medication compliance and poor HIV treatment outcomes.

    A local newspaper, New Vision, quoted Akol as saying: "Alcohol may also increase the severity of AIDS-related brain damage, which is characterised in its severest form by profound dementia and a high death rate."

    She noted that alcohol also increased susceptibility to some infections that could occur as complications of AIDS.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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