HIV patients are more likely to die because of smoking instead of the viral infection. A new study claims that the use of tobacco predisposes mutations of DNA causing cancer.

Available drugs for the viral infection are effective in keeping individuals healthy. In fact, patients taking these medicines almost get similar life expectancy as disease-free Americans. However, 40 percent of infected individuals smoke making them at risk of mutations.

An experiment conducted by Dr. Krishna Reddy and his colleagues from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital revealed that smoking has more adverse effects on the body than the viral infection. Th use of tobacco results to an average of 6 years shorter life expectancy compared to a healthy HIV-infected individual. The research stated, "it is well known that smoking is bad for health but we demonstrate in this study just how bad it is."

The authors aim to warn patients about the health hazards of cigarettes, "we actually quantify the risk, and I think providing those numbers to patients can help put their own risks from smoking in perspective. A person with HIV who consistently takes HIV medicines but smokes is much more likely to die of a smoking-related disease than of HIV itself."

Smoking tops the list of causes of preventable diseases. Smoking results in over 480,000 deaths in America annually, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported. Meanwhile, HIV without treatment predisposes to a fatal disease called AIDS. The virus never leaves the body leaving the immune system compromised.