Q and A

Question

My husband started meds with a CD4 count of 4? What about his liver?

My husband’s CD count is 4 and he started on ARV two months ago.

My concern is whether it is too late for him or does he still have a chance to survive. He is also taking two ilvitrim tablets in the morning and at night and vitamin tablets in the morning.

Will these tablets damage his liver?

Answer

Hi

Thanks for your questions – your husband is lucky to have you finding out about his health.

Guidelines recommend starting treatment much earlier when the CD4 count is about 350 or higher. However, if you don’t find out until your CD4 count is already much lower, there are still a really good chance he will be ok.

I know many people who started treatment when their CD4 count less than 10. Then have been leading full and active lives for the last 10-15 years. And meds today are even better than they were back then.

Because his CD4 count was below 50 it is important to be monitored very carefully until it gets above 50 and then above 100. See this post for detail about something called IRIS.

If he has been okay for the last two months, then his CD4 count is already likely to be increasing.

Ilvitrim is a dual antibiotic that is also called co-trimoxazole. See this question for more information

Your husband should have routine monitoring to check his liver is okay. Occasionally there are problems when meds need to be changed. The main concern over the liver is when someone also has hepatitis B or C.

13 comments

  1. Roy Trevelion

    Hi Maria,

    It might be possible to take a single pill once a day. But what HIV meds are you resistant to?

    You can talk to your doctor about chnaging to a once daily single pill that works for you.

    Do you have access to your viral load and CD4 results? Please let us know.

  2. Maria

    Hi im using alluvia en tenovor drugs,is it possible to change to once pill as the pills i was using before got resisted as i was not taking them on time because of my last relationship.im not able to drink day en night as I’m sometimes spend time at work.i don’t care even if there’s lot of pills but only if i can use them once.is it possible for me to get pills like that?

  3. Lisa Thorley

    Hi Khanyisa,

    If you’re having difficulties with taking two pills, then yes you may want to try the one pill. Single pills are however larger, so this could be an issue for you. Have you tried taking them one at a time? Perhaps with food.

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