Christopher Ohl, M.D., Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Question: I have an HIV infection, should I be concerned I might get swine flu or have a more severe infection?
Answer: For patients who have HIV or AIDS, one of the common questions is: should I be worried about getting swine flu? Will the illness be more severe if I get it? This depends a little bit on the stage of your HIV infection. By far and away, most of the patients who have HIV and are on medications and their HIV is well controlled, will likely not get an illness any more severe than the regular population.
However, for patients who have later stage HIV and their HIV is not well controlled with their HIV medications, it is possible that if you get swine flu the illness should be more severe.
Certainly if you get an illness that includes fever, body aches and headaches and if you have later stages of HIV infection, you should contact your HIV provider or physician to decide whether or not you should be evaluated and whether you should be on medications that would be active against swine flu.
