AIDS Drug Found To Double Risk Of Heart Attack

Washington (dbTechno) - Two very popular and common anti-HIV drug has been found to nearly double the risk of heart attack in those who take it. The first drug is abacavir, also known as ziagen, while the other AIDS drug is didanosine

Danish researchers carried out a study on ziagen consisting of 33,000 patients.

The study was led by Jens D. Lundgren of the University of Copenhagen. All 33,000 of the patients involved in the study were HIV positiive and came from the U.S., Europe, as well as Australia.

The study an from 1999 to 2005 as researchers checked patients who were at risk of heart disease. During the study, 517 patients suffered heart attacks. 124 of them were recently taking didanosine, while 192 were recently taking abacavir.

Researchers concluded that those who were taking abacavir had nearly double the risk of heart attack compared to patients on other drugs.

The same can be said for didanosine, which increased the chance by 50%.

Once patients stopped taking the drugs, the increased risk disappeared after 6 months.

The study has been published in The Lancet.