Question
How long can I live without HIV drugs?
2 January 2017. Related: All topics, Life expectancy, Living with HIV long-term.
Can you please tell me how long can someone live without taking HIV medication?
Answer
The best way to answer this is to say that modern HIV treatment (ART) means that life expectancy is not affected by being HIV positive. HIV positive people with access to treatment can be expected to live as long as before they became positive.
Without using HIV treatment, life expectancy is related to how quickly your CD4 count drops and how low it gets.
Without treatment, some people see their CD4 count drop to under 200 within a few years of infection, while others people can go for 5-10 years or longer before they need treatment.
See also: Your CD4 count and the risk of becoming ill.
This is different to saying how long you could live. However, without treatment, once your CD4 count falls below 200 life expectancy drops very dramatically.
Note: This answer was updated in January 2017 from a question first posted in November 2011.
Hi Christ H, thanks, your Q is very clear.
Even though stopping meds without a medical reason is not recommended, you are likely to still be fine. Restarting asap should bring your viral load back to undetectable again. Without results of a recent CD4 count off treatment it is difficult to comment, but 4-6 weeks off ART might still be short enough for your CD4 count to have stayed higher.
As you said your CD4 count was low when you started five months ago, your doctor should have taken new CD4 and viral load tests before your restarted. If they didn’t do this though, please don’t worry.
It sounds like you might be in the USA which I know can be very complicated in terms of access to meds via an insurance policy? I hear of many cases where people are doing everything right but the insurance system still lets them down.
It is actually shocking for people outside the US to here about problems like this. Nearly every other country would never let this happen. Meds are either provided free, or some other way would be found s that you did not have to stop your meds.
If this ever happens again, perhaps contact your closest large HIV organisation in case they have a way to get you meds to cover any future problem. Sometimes they might have a supply of donated meds, or they might be able to link you to ADAP for free meds if money is the problem.
Hello. I’ve been undetectable for almost 4/5 months but I’ve recently been off meds for a month & a half because I was unable to afford my meds ($4000) but I’m currently back on them after insurance kicked in.
My question is am I still able to get back to being undetectable and remain healthy even though I had a very low T-cell count when I was first diagnosed?
I’m not sure I asked this correctly but hopefully that makes sense.
Thank you.
Hi Melissa, are you both HIV positive. If yes, then you both need to use HIV treatment. If you are HIV negative, then you don’t need treatment, but you might want to use PrEP.
i-base.info/pep-and-prep
Either way, please talk to your doctor.
Can you live without medication but your partner takes medication
Hi Raymond, have you been tested for HIV?
My question is this can I go two weeks without taking my medication when I have any effect I am on medication and I do have HIV
Hi Lizzy, where are you? In the UK injectable forms can be accessed via the NHS.
Where can l find this injectionble forms of this medication bring used every month
If your affected hiv aids in one month can you treat and be healed forever…am asking
Hi Akanyijuka, HIV is a life-long infection. After becoming HIV positive, you will remain HIV positive. There is no treatment that can remove and cure HIV. ART is a treatment that suppresses HIV. It is a medication that includes 2-3 drugs and is taken daily. This medication stops HIV weakening your immune system and prevents transmission to other people. Recently there are injectable forms of this medication being used and the treatment is needed every month instead of a daily pill. This is a link about starting ART: https://i-base.info/guides/starting