Stroke in young Nigerians are linked to HIV

yinka ogunlami

December 31, 2015 11:56 PM

A new study by the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Infection and Global Health has revealed that the foremost risk factor for having a young in young Africans is HIV. Nigeria which presently holds 9% of the total HIV population of the world are at huge risk.

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HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency virus. If left untreated it can lead to the disease AIDS which is known as Acquired Immunodeficiency virus. Unlike other disease, the HIV cannot be cured which means if someone have HIV, it will be there for the rest of their lives and till now no effective remedy have come up for the disease.

Strokes are on the rise across most of the African states where a huge proportion of young adults are affected by it and have high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. Researchers have studied the role of HIV and its association with high blood pressure. In a case controlled study of 222 stroke patients and 503 controls, the researchers found out that42 per cent cases were in those under the age of 45 and it could be attributed to the HIV infection.

There were no association of high blood pressure with stroke in young adults, ultimately showing that HIV was the independent risk factor. During treatment of patients with HIV, the risk of stroke increased substantially during the first six months of their treatment but again showing no signs of association between blood pressure and HIV.

The head of the research, Dr. Laura Benjamin said, “The link between HIV infection and stroke is now more convincing than ever. While in the longer term treatment reduces stroke risk, we were surprised to find that the risk actually increases in the first few months of the therapy.

yinka ogunlami