Viral Load Linked to Pneumonia Risk

HIVers on antiretroviral therapy who have high viral levels are at a higher risk of developing bacterial pneumonia than those with better viral control, researchers report in the May edition of HIV Medicine. French doctors who studied 1,200 HIVers taking protease inhibitor'based therapy report that those with viral loads above 10,000 copies had five times the pneumonia rate of HIVers with well-controlled virus. Bacterial pneumonia, unlike most opportunistic infections, can occur even when HIV patients have high CD4-cell counts.