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 Julie,
Do you know if your brother is an elite controller? Also, what’s his CD4 count?
My brother was diagnosed HIV positive 27 years ago, he takes no medication at all, how is this possible
Hi Rinah,
When you say that you have defaulted three times, what exactly do you mean? Is this 3 days in a row, or 3 days over a period of time? If its over a period of time then you will be fine. You should also be OK if it was over 3 consecutive days. However, its important that you take your meds and daily.
I have defaulted for 3 times, will the meds still work on my system
Hi Alex,
Which country do you live in? If you could tell us we may be able to help you with info about where to access meds.
I’ve not been able to access meds for 7 months, am I going to die?
Hi Lebogang,
How are you coping? Do you have anyone who you can talk to?
The recommendations now are that everyone who’s positive should be on ARVs and this is regardless of what their CD4 counts is. For more info about treatment, please see here:
http://i-base.info/guides/starting
If you need anything else, please email me directly at lisathorley@i-base.org.uk
Hi, I just find out that am HIV, I’m not sure if I should start treatment or not
I was born with HIV and i have never used treatment but i’m still healthy and strong.i’ve been living with it for 22 years now
Hi thabelo,
No one can predict how long a person can live for. For more info about life expectancy, please see Q 10 here:
http://i-base.info/qa/what-are-the-most-asked-questions