Question
What happens if I stop taking treatment?
31 August 2016. Related: Adherence, All topics, Changing treatment, Side effects, South Africa, Stopping treatment.
What are the side effects if someone stops taking her medication for HIV?
Answer
Thanks for your question.
May I ask why you are thinking of stopping? Many people find adhering hard at some in their lives but there are ways to make it easier. Likewise if you are suffering side effects – you can switch to meds that better suit you.
Several years ago a very large study called SMART reported that stopping treatment increased the risk of serious complications. These included a higher risk for heart, liver and kidney complications in people who stopped treatment and also a higher rate of some cancers.
If you decide to stop treatment, your viral load is likely to rebound within a few weeks. If you stay off treatment your CD4 count will start to drop over the next few months. When this happens the risk of developing other infections and getting sick increases.
How quickly this will happen though varies a lot. The lower your CD4 count was when you started meds, the quicker your CD4 is likely to fall without ART.
In the SMART study, most people who took a treatment break did pretty well for a short time. However, most people were not able to recover their CD4 count to earlier levels even 18 months after they restarted treatment.
Please talk to your doctor about who you feel. It is not generally good to stop treatment. It is definitely not good to do this without first talking to your doctor.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Pls when some stop taking the medication and with hiv get pregnant and have a healthy child
Hi Ifeoma, where is he in jail? Being in prison should not prevent him accessing treatment. Have you been able to have any contact with him? and have you been told any reasons for why he is not getting treatment?
My husband who has been on ARV treatment since 2012 was recently arrested and will be in prison for 5 years and he doesn’t have his treatment and it happened in a country far from where I live. What are his chances of falling sick
Hi Mpho, what treatment were you taking?
I had stop using my ARVs cause it make me nausea and sleepy I also don’t have an appetite
Hi Jasmine, what country is your brother studying? and does he have a recent CD4 count and viral load?
It is possible that the symptoms you have mentioned are due to HIV. Is he able to speak to a doctor?
My brother have stopped taking his HiV medicine due to the reason the country he was in it was hard to attain it as if known the person will be deported and he was studying.
It’s like 10 month.
His having rashes in the face and body weight loss is this signs due to stoppage or
Hi Elisa, when did your sister stop taking her medication? What medication was she taking?
My sister has stopped having her HIV medication. She had been very unsteady shaky etc. Is this from stopping that u know of. I am very concerned.. I need to know what to watch for please
Hi Marenza? Can I ask why you stopped taking your medication? and are you looking to go back to the clinic to restart?