Question
Is a CD4 of 200 okay?
17 December 2017. Related: All topics, CD4 and viral load.
My CD4 is 200 and viral load is 50,000 is this OK?
Answer
Thanks for getting in touch.
A single CD4 count of 200 needs to be interpreted with information about when you might have become HIV positive. If you know this is a very recent infection, then even without treatment your CD4 count might increase even without treatment.
For most people, it means that they were infected perhaps 5-8 years ago.
Even without knowing when you were became HIV positive, all guidelines recommended starting HIV treatment (called ART).
If you are not already taking ART, please talk to your doctor about starting.
This online guide has more information:
https://i-base.info/guides/starting
Once on meds your viral load will drop and your CD4 count should steadily increase to higher levels.
Hi Lerato,
When someone is positive, this means that unless a cure is found they will always be positive. A CD4 of 169 is low, are you on medication?
My CD4 is 169 in stil hiv positive
Hi Valle, yes, even with just these few details it sounds like your latest results are much better.
Once you are on treatment, the viral load is more important than the CD4 count.
If you keep taking the meds carefully, hopefully your viral load will go down even further. This is a good thing. Ideally, viral load should become undetectable over the next few months. Then your CD4 count can steadily get stronger.
My CD4 count was 155 and my viraloud was 4856. My Dr said this was not fine but i continued with my treatment and now my CD4 count is 170 and viral load is now 640. i wanna know if i’m still in the right track.