Baum and colleagues showed that selenium-deficient HIV patients are nearly 20 times more likely (p<0.0001) to die from HIV-related causes than those with adequate levels . . . Baum and
colleagues showed that low plasma selenium is a significantly greater risk factor for
mortality than low helper-T-cell count, by a factor of 16, and confers a
more significant
risk than deficiency of any other nutrient investigated."