A common and distressing manifestation of long-term HIV infection is known as facial lipoatrophy. The layer of fat beneath the patient’s facial skin erodes over time, causing dramatic changes in appearance and subsequent loss of self-esteem. This loss of self-esteem can lead to a substantially lower quality of life due to the increased difficulty in social relationships that it causes. It can also have lethal effects on the HIV patient’s health due to the decrease in medication compliance that often results. The standard treatment for this condition, called thymidine-based nucleoside analog cessation, is only mildly effective and works extremely...
