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 Monday, as you have had tests that confirm you are HIV negative your current symptoms are not being caused by HIV. You will need to speak with your doctor about what further investigations can be done to find out why you have these symptoms.
Hi am new here please I need help I ran a test in 2019 the result shows am positive but it’s faint after then I went to different hospitals and clinics to run the same test but is negative and passing pain on daily basis, movements in my body, hot on my feet pimples on my face, itching, severe hunger heat both nights and day please what should I do tanks
Hi Phumzile, do you know what treatment your mum was taking? It is not too late for her to go back on treatment? How long had she been taking treatment? Some of the older drugs were known to cause pain. This is less common with newer combinations. Would she be willing to try a different drug? Does your mom know her viral load and CD4 count?
Hi. My mom has been on treatment for over 20 years. I just discovered that she stopped taking her ARVs 2years back. She believes they caused her pain.
Is it too late for her to go back and how can I convince her?.
She is not even eating well and always in bed.
Hi Thobile, do you want to start treatment? Do you know your CD4 count and viral load?
I’m hiv positive I descovered 2006,but I’m not on treatment
Hi Xaba, there are some different strains of HIV but usually they all effect health the same way. The difference more commonly is how the person themselves respond to HIV. There are some people that can naturally suppress HIV without treatment – these people are called elite controllers. Does this person know their CD4 count and viral load?
I know of someone who was diagnosed with Hiv in 1995 till today they have not taken ARVs, does Hiv have different strains?
Hi, how are you doing? I am sorry to hear that you are going through a lot right now. Had you tested before this? A reactive test means that you are HIV positive. Unfortunately these tests cannot tell you when you became HIV positive. A CD4 count of 949 is great. It is within a healthy range (between 430 and 1690). This means that HIV has not damaged your immune system. Have you been told your viral load? and have you started treatment?
I’m newly diagnosed of hiv (last time I hard sex was in 2020)but my results shows reactive what does that mean? And my cd4 counts is 949.6 please I somebody explain this to me… I’m going through a lot right now