CD4 and diabetes mellitus: However, specific HIV-related risk factors may contribute to the increased prevalence of DM in PLWH, including cumulative ART exposure [9], use of ‘metabolically unfriendly’ antiretroviral drugs such as first-generation protease inhibitors and nucleoside analogues [10–12], lipodystrophy, as well as prolonged HIV exposure duration, low CD4 nadir [7] and persistent inflammation [3,6,8].