HIV window quuestion

how long can he stay on if his cd4 is 103 in changi chalet last month and he have a check on 16 august found out his cd4 increase to 123 by 20 more. so concurrent how long can he survive, is this what they say about full blown hiv. or hiv carrier only. he suffering from (preumiou) lung disease?

[daneman]

Originally Posted by seesee

how long can he stay on if his cd4 is 103 in changi chalet last month and he have a check on 16 august found out his cd4 increase to 123 by 20 more. so concurrent how long can he survive, is this what they say about full blown hiv. or hiv carrier only. he suffering from (preumiou) lung disease?

It is very hard to say how long he will survive. People have different definations about what is defined as full blown HIV or AIDs...some say if your CD4 is 200 or below, you have full blown aids, others say that when you have thrush and other opportunistic infections, you have full blown HIV. My advice to him / her is to carry on seeing the HIV specialist. Nowadays, with the medication on hand, though expensive can extend the life of a person. It can increase the CD4 count. Ask your relative not to lose hope.

[nastromo]

When HIV infects humans, the cells it infects most often are CD4+ cells. The virus becomes part of the cells, and when they multiply to fight an infection, they also make more copies of HIV.

The CD4+ cell count is a key measure of the health of the immune system. The lower the count, the greater damage HIV has done. Anyone who has less than 200 CD4+ cells, or a CD4+ percentage less than 14%, is considered to have AIDS

CD4+ counts are used together with the viral load to estimate how long someone will stay healthy

WHEN TO START TREATMENT

* Patients with symptoms of HIV disease or with less than 200 T-cells should all be treated.
* Patients with no symptoms who have less than 350 T-cells OR viral load over 100,000 should be offered treatment. Consider the risk of disease progression and the patient's willingness to start therapy.
* Patients with no symptoms, more than 350 T-cells AND a viral load below 100,000 do not need to start treatment. They should get regular viral load and CD4 tests.(Every 3 to 6 months to monitor the strength of the immune system)

[AfA_hmor]

Dear Coldcut,

You can still come to do the test, just to put yourself mentally at ease. We have alot of people coming to do the test, just because they think they are at very high risk! However, upon sessions of assessment with them, these people are actually very sane and safe as they used condoms!

Typically, we at AfA test site will provide two options: 1) To go ahead with the test so that the individual will feel good and safe. 2) To refund them.

But you never know if someone is telling us the truth, so we usually go ahead and let them do the test unless it is very assuring that he/she is telling the truth.

AfA outreach

[AfA_hmor]

Originally Posted by seesee

how long can he stay on if his cd4 is 103 in changi chalet last month and he have a check on 16 august found out his cd4 increase to 123 by 20 more. so concurrent how long can he survive, is this what they say about full blown hiv. or hiv carrier only. he suffering from (preumiou) lung disease?

Dear Seesee,

It depends on individual. Some survive well while some do not. How long can he survive will depend on his responses to the treatment. We know of people who can live on and on for many years even after they developed full-blown AIDS - almost dying from the ICU. They miraculously bounced back to life and their CD4 count is getting better on treatment!

AfA outreach