Question
What does a CD4 count of 42 mean?
26 August 2011. Related: All topics, CD4 and viral load, Starting treatment.
I found that i was positive a year back, i am on art and my cd4 count is 42. What does this suggest?
Answer
Thanks for your question.
I hope you are finding life easier as you get used to HIV. Getting a diagnosis is difficult but it is good that you are now on treatment.
Your CD4 count is a marker of how strong your immune system is, and 42 is pretty low. This means that you are still at risk of HIV-related symptoms until it gets higher because of your ARV treatment.
I am assuming that your CD4 count was lower when you were diagnosed. When starting treatment at a CD4 count below 50, it can take a year to reach 100 and another year perhaps to reach 200.
During this time the risk of infections is lower than if you were not on treatment but until you get to 200 you should also be prescribed an antibiotic called Septrin.
Also, while your CD4 count is below 50, your doctor should examine your eyes to check you do not have vision problems relating to an infection called CMV.
If your CD4 count has not gone up over the last year, then you should ask your doctor to explain these results in case alternative treatments could be used.
Here are a couple of links to infromation about CD4 counts.
https://i-base.info/ttfa/section-1/17-cd4-count-as-a-surrogate-marker
https://i-base.info/ttfa/section-1/19-interpreting-cd4-results-cd4-count-and-cd4-percentage
My cd4 count is 42, I’ve been diagnosed 25 years and my viral load is just below 1 million, I have not had a cd4 count above 140 in twelve years or more. I have taken so many trial drugs up to 30 a day at one point, and am fed up to the back teeth of popping pills not only HIV pills but morphine for pain and blood pressure pills as well as sleeping tablets, calcium iron vitamin b folic acid and anti phdycotics and many more, so stick to my pain management and not much more. My question is what’s my prognosis?
Your CD4 count is high enough that there is no medical hurry to start treatment. Depending on your personal situation and where you live there may be reasons why you would want to start treatment, or why you would prefer to wait. This is a very personal decision and I can’t tell you what is best in your situation. Please see this page about CD4 counts and starting treatment for more information.
my cd4 count is 534 do u think that i should start taking treatment.
Hi Nelly, HIV treatment makes it much less likely that your baby will be positive. Please see our pregnancy guide for more information and let me know if you have any questions.
I’m hiv positive I started treatment when I found out m pregnent,will chances of getting a healthy baby high or low?
If your CD4 count is less than 200 it is important to restart treatment. Your current CD4 count puts you at a high risk of serious HIV-related complications.
Please speak to your doctor about this.
If you have already restarted, then your CD4 count should now improve.
You may or may not have resistance from the way you stopped your meds last time. If you can not get a resistance test, you have to just hope that this will be ok.
will my cd4 go up again as it is now 68. i was on medication and i stopped for a year. will i be resistant?
This will depend on the guidelines for accessing treatment in your country.
Most guidelines now recommend treatment when your CD4 count falls below 350. Some countries still use 200 as a cut off.
Please talk to your doctor if you are interested in starting treatment. there may be other factors that make this possible.
It is possible for me to take ARV treatmemet. my cd4 count is 298
As Simon pointed out, you should be taking Septrin. This is to prevent PCP pneumonia and toxoplasmosis.
However, people with very low CD4 cell count as yours, have greater chances of experiencing severe side effects, such as rash, pruritis i.e severe itch and photosensivity, amongst others.
You can ask your doctor for “atovaquone”, which is sometimes better tolerated drug than Septrin or Dapsone.
Regards