18th June 2024

Background

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) affected an estimated 37.7 million worldwide in 2020, with 1.5 million people becoming newly infected, as per the UNAIDS statistics published in 2021. The UK AIDS Trust estimated that there were approximately 105,200 people living with HIV in the UK in 2019.

HIV is a single-stranded RNA retrovirus which is spread predominantly through penetrating sexual contact, blood exposure and perinatally. HIV’s main negative impact on health is through progressive destruction of patients’ CD4+ helper T cell population, resulting in serious illness from pathogens not otherwise anticipated in a healthy patient (opportunistic infections). Other features include enhanced susceptibility to various cancer types (most notably non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Kaposi sarcoma), organ-specific complications associated with viraemia (i.e. thrombocytopenia and HIV-associated nephropathy) and chronic conditions exacerbated through increased atherosclerosis (i.e. cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease).