How to address smoking cessation in HIV patients.

Tobacco consumption is the modifiable risk factor contributing most to the development of non-AIDS-defining events among persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Clinicians' awareness of this problem is critical and not yet adequate. Practical information issued by public health authorities or contained in experts' clinical guidelines regarding how to address smoking cessation in PLWHA is scarce. The aim of this review is to provide physicians with comprehensive and practical information regarding how to identify HIV-positive patients willing to stop smoking and those more likely to succeed, how to choose the most suitable strategy for an individual patient, and how to help the patient during the process. In the light of current evidence on the efficacy and benefits of stopping smoking in PLWHA, physicians must actively pursue smoking cessation as a major objective in the clinical care of PLWHA.