Abstract

Dramatic declines in HIV-related mortality have been achieved by increasing access to combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Western countries; however, when pooled mortality rates from people living with HIV (PLWH) worldwide are compared with those of the general population, PLWH are 15 times more likely to experience early death. In Miami-Dade County, where the use of cocaine is frequent among PLWH and the incidence of HIV is the highest in the United States, cocaine use has been associated with increased mortality in the Miami Adult Studies on HIV (MASH) cohort. Cocaine use was associated with, HIV-related mortality and cardio-pulmonary deaths, the two main causes of death in this report.