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.
My results tested undetected and I stopped taking meds and now my joints are at pain,does this mean the virus is back ?
Hi Michael, if you still have this transfer letter you can go to the next clinic. This will provide the information required for you to restart treatment.
I stopped taking my meds in 2021 October whereas my viral load was 49 an Im scared to go back because before I stopped i took an transfer to another clinic but didn’t submit it to the next clinic because of personal issues,
Should I go to the next clinic and provide them with my transfer or go back to my previous clinic?
Hi Pamela, have you been told what your CD4 count is? and do you mean falling sick after being treated for meningitis?
You will be able to confirm if your ART is working again by having a viral load test in a few weeks. Have you restarted the same treatment you were on previously?
I stopped taking treatment for two years then got sick and was admitted in hospital because of meningitis .They put me back of medication after 2 years lam starting to fall sick buy they say my cd for count is ok.Can that be a default
Hi Kiana, please see this previous post: https://i-base.info/qa/15086
I have missed my biktarvy for 4 days and I’m scared as hell. I keep reading about it causing drug resistance once you stop. Will I instantly get sick again after 4 days? My pharmacy shorted me some pills.
Hi Nonto,
Please don’t worry about this. Please talk to your doctor as soon as possible about restarting your HIV meds. The meds will still work very well.
You probably have shingles because your CD4 count went down after you stopped your HIV meds. The shingles should also be treated at the same time.
Hi I stopped talking my meds about 17 months ago now I have shingles, will I get sick if I restart my meds while I still have these shingles? Have I defaulted?
Hi Joanna, yes you can restart your treatment. Do you know the name of the treatment you were taking 2 years ago? why did you stop?
And have you had any recent tests to find out what your viral load and CD4 count are?