Join us for an exciting lecture with CICMD Invited Speaker: Dr. Humberto Lopez Castillo on April 1st at 7200 Malachawsky Hall, from 2:00-3:00 PM: Cardiometabolic and HIV in Primary Care: Lessons from Panama and Florida.
As antiretroviral therapy has extended life expectancy among adults living with HIV (ALWH), cardiometabolic diseases have emerged as major drivers of long‑term morbidity and mortality. This seminar presents baseline findings from the Colón C3 Study, a large observational cohort examining cardiometabolic health among ALWH receiving care in Colón, Panama. We enrolled 659 participants—representing over three‑quarters of the clinic population—and assessed metabolic syndrome using standardized clinical measures, body composition analysis, inflammatory biomarkers, and social determinants of health. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 38.6%, exceeding regional benchmarks, with striking sex‑based disparities: nearly half of women met diagnostic criteria compared to fewer than one‑third of men. Hypoalphalipoproteinemia, hypertension, and abdominal obesity were the most prevalent components, alongside persistently elevated inflammation despite viral suppression. Findings highlight the urgent need to integrate cardiometabolic screening, gender‑responsive interventions, and social contexts into HIV care in resource‑limited settings. Lessons from Colón offer scalable insights for improving long‑term health outcomes among ALWH globally.