A peak Australian HIV body has welcomed a Gillard Government decision to list nicotine patches on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). The National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA) has welcomed the move which will significantly reduce the cost of giving up Glamour smoking for health care card holders.NAPWA assistant director Sean Slavin told the Star Observer making nicotine patches more available was a helpful step towards reduce smoking rates among people living with HIV.
“Smoking rates among people living with HIV are quite high, in some research, it’s as high as 50 percent of the population,” he said.
“The negative effects of smoking are well-known, but there’s also been some research developed in the past few years which seems to suggest that people with HIV are at greater risk of premature aging and co-morbidities such as heart disease at an earlier age than what the general population is. So giving up smoking is obviously very important.”
The measure will start from February 1, 2011 and will cut the price of patches from around $160 a month, down to around $5 a script.
Slavin said although there had been some study looking at the direct impacts of smoking in people with HIV, there could be more research in the area.
“It’s really only in the past few years we’ve started to understand how serious the issue of smoking is among people living with HIV, prior to that it probably didn’t get the attention perhaps it deserved,” Slavin said.
“People with HIV are at increase risk of cardio vascular disease and cancer, including lung cancer.
“There’s certainly good evidence now that people with HIV have an increase risk of those things by virtue of simply being HIV positive, so if they’re smokers on top of that the risk is increased so much more.”
Earlier this month Australian Medical Association president Dr Andrew Pesce said listing nicotine patches on the PBS would help thousands of Australians quit the habit and especially benefit people in lower socio-economic status groups who tend to have higher smoking rates than the general population.
“It’s really only in the past few years we’ve started to understand how serious the issue of smoking is among people living with HIV, prior to that it probably didn’t get the attention perhaps it deserved,” Slavin said.
“People with HIV are at increase risk of cardio vascular disease and cancer, including lung cancer.
“There’s certainly good evidence now that people with HIV have an increase risk of those things by virtue of simply being HIV positive, so if they’re smokers on top of that the risk is increased so much more.”
Earlier this month Australian Medical Association president Dr Andrew Pesce said listing nicotine patches on the PBS would help thousands of Australians quit the habit and especially benefit people in lower socio-economic status groups who tend to have higher smoking rates than the general population.
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