Trial of a Harm Reduction Strategy for People With HIV Who Smoke Cigarettes

Cigarette smoking is now the leading killer of people with HIV (PWH) in the US, and most cessation strategies tried to date have failed to increase long-term quit rates. An "all or none" approach to smoking cessation in PWH offers little benefit to the large majority of PWH who are unable or unwilling to quit. In this proposal we argue that a harm reduction approach (i.e., cut down, get screened for lung cancer, control your blood pressure and cholesterol) has the potential to yield significant benefits in terms of the private and public health of PWH in the US.