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 Tiana, I answered this online from your email:
https://i-base.info/qa/23143
I was hiv positive in 2018
So about a year later being on drug, i was hiv negative.
I had several tests but still hiv negative
Have stopped taking the drugs for 16months now and am still testing hiv negative
Please does this mean there’s error in the first test of me being positive?
Hi Mohammed, what are your health problems? HIV can be treated with ART. Are you on treatment for HIV? More information about HIV ART can be found here: https://i-base.info/guides/starting
After treating HIV, the health conditions associated with low CD4 counts often get treated and/or can be managed with other medications. Do you know your current CD4 count/viral load?
Hello . Please you have a health programs for get rid hiv?
Hi Julie, yes a test would still identify an infection. If you are testing for HIV after an exposure years ago and the result is negative, the result is conclusive. You do not have HIV.
For more information about testing please see here: https://i-base.info/qa/factsheets/hiv-transmission-and-testing
If God forbid I was unknowingly exposed to an STD or HIV many many years ago, would tests taken only now pick up the infection? I didn’t have symptoms back then but have a lot of symptoms now and feel sick. I took all the tests and everything was negative except for oral herpes which was positive. Would tests taken now be accurate?
Hi Sollomone, I am glad to hear that you are feeling well. Do you know your current CD4 count and viral load?
What was the treatment you were on and what were the side effects they were causing?
Have you now restarted taking ARVs?
I been hiv positive on 2021 i took arvs for 1 year then it was giving me health problems i left it now im 100% fine no more sickness and pain
What to do now cz im hiv positive and ones i take arvs things are changing sametime im heting sick
Hi Martyn, I am sorry to hear your ongoing struggles with mental health. Have you been able to find support e.g., friends/family, peer groups and/or mental health services?
Have you spoken with your doctor about suitable ways to take treatment e.g., swallowing techniques or changing injection sites?
When did you last have your viral load tested? Often CD4 is tested alongside this, more so when switching treatment. As you have been on/off with treatment it is not possible to say what your CD4 count will be. Some people find their CD4 count is below 200 within only a few years of testing positive, whereas others can remain higher than 500 for more than 15 years. How is your health in general?
Hi there was told back in Feburary 2015 that I had hiv I tried a few meds for the 1 year . But was working for me as I could not swallow the tablets as I have try to commit suicide . So I was offered the the new injection that was out . I had tried that for a year which was working , but had to stop because of the pain it was giving me in my hip , I have since not taken any med or been and had my bloods done , years have past since 15 what would the likelihood of my my cd4 being below 200