The main finding of this study of a sample of HIV-infected adults emphasizes the stronger impact of central fat distribution (measured by waist circumference), compared with relative weight (measured by body mass index), in mediating the associations of HAART with increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, independent of factors that could attenuate these associations, such as age, sex, smoking status, CD4 cell count and duration of HIV infection. Here, CD4 is linked to HIV infectious disease.