The BBC reports on what is some fairly premature research, in multiple ways. Apparently, the New Danger is that having HIV increases your risk of heart disease. And people need to know this so they have a reason not to get HIV?

OK, ok, sure, as the article notes, it can lead to blood clots and it does so more quickly than in non-HIV patients, so it could conceiveably shorten the lifespan of an HIV sufferer. HIV-infected people also have a much longer life expectency now. Maybe someday we’ll even have a cure, and at that point this will be the Big Reason not to get HIV.

But as the article also points out, the study is done on a very small number of patients, overstates the risk, and doesn’t seem to take into account true causation (such as HIV treatments affecting heart disease risk). The Big Picture is: if you get HIV, your worst problem is avoiding getting full-blown AIDS. Everything after that runs a way distant second or less.

I do look forward to the day when this is the worst problem that HIV positive people have to worry about, though.