Question
How long can I live if I’m taking HIV treatment (ART)?
15 January 2018. Related: All topics, Life expectancy, Living with HIV long-term.
Can HIV kill when you have an undetectable viral load? I’m doing well on medication and how long can i live to the cure? Lastly, why cant I stop thinking about my HIV status – first thing in the morning and also just before I fall asleep?
Polio have been eradicated but why cant scientists do the same for HIV?
Answer
The quick answer is that with modern HIV drugs (called ART) your life expectancy is likely to be similar to if you were HIV negative. The earlier someone is diagnosed and start ART, the quicker any damage from HIV can be reversed.
For most people, HIV is easy to treat and easy to manage. ART can give you a normal life expectancy and an excellent quality of life.
Hw long anyone will live depends on things you can change (smoking, exercise, medication) and thing you can’t (genetics and luck). A study in Denmark (2005) estimated that the survival is more than 35 years for a young person diagnosed with HIV infection and another study in Canada (2003) report that in the US, life expectancy at age 20 years was an additional 58.3 years.
As long as your CD4 count stays above 200 cells/mm3, the risk of most HIV complications is pretty low. At higher CD4 levels – above 350, or 500, or 700 – the risk becomes lower still. Although some health problems are slightly higher in HIV positive people compared to HIV negative people, these risks are also often reduced by ART.
If you continue to take your medication as prescribed and do not miss or taking doses late, then the risk of HIV health problems in the future s very low. However, just as HIV negative people become ill, lifestyle changes to reduce these risks are important if you are HIV positive. For example, keeping mentally and physically active, eating a balanced diet, resting well, not smoking etc).
Having HIV might not always be easy though. The shock of being diagnosed sometimes takes a long time to come to terms with and at the moment you are still working on this. Already, I am sure you feel better than when you were first diagnosed and this will continue to become easier every year.
Most people worry about the impact of HIV on their life. This could bewhy you think about your HIV status on a daily basis. If this continues to be difficult perhaps get in touch with a local support group or ask about counselling. Talking about your HIV status can help you to deal with it and also through group support you can share experiences and also learn from one another. You do not have to deal with it in isolation.
Finally, you asked about research into a cure. HIV is very complex in a way that is different to polio. Although currently there is no vaccine or cure, there is a lot of ongoing research.
HIV treatment is one of the successes of modern medicine. The breadth and expertise in scientific advances has not only developed 30 medications in five drug classes but this research has contributed to many other areas of medicine.
Even though curing HIV is difficult, there are lots of reasons to be optimistic.
This question was updated in January 2018 from an original answer posted in November 2011. (See: Question 10 at this link for more information).
being HIV is not a death sentece i have known i was in fected from 2007 and i live with the virus an u cant tell, recently this year i gave birth to a healty and beautiful girl and she is negative so is her father . so taking care of yourself is the best thing and my viral load is 0.0 meaning i dont have active virus on my body.
Hi Jeffrey.
If your partner is on medication and there viral load is undetectable you won’t be at any risk. Please see here for more info:
http://i-base.info/htb/32308
If however there viral load is detectable, then yes there is a risk of contracting HIV.
I am in relationship with person who’s affected. We’ve been together for 5yrs. We have 2 kids. I’ negative. Will it always be this way?
Hi Wayne,
There isn’t a cure for HIV. However, HIV can be controlled by using ARVs. No God can do this.
the truth is hiv has a cure put ur faith in God and he will see u through. do visit any prophet(man of GOD) and he will make u well provided u belief in the mesiah and the power or resorection. thks
Hi Rwo,
Thank you for sharing some of your life with us. And for you advice.
I know exactly how you feel about thinking about your HIV status all the time. I do the same thing. I sometimes think about who/where I got it from, or if I accidentally infected anyone before getting my diagnosis. It’s a pervasive thought that at times is the only thing I can think about.
There is also the issue of discrimination and stigma attached with being positive. I would think to myself, no one will ever want to love me, I’m damaged, not worthy of being loved, etc. I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s when HIV was a death sentence. I suffer from depression and PTSD from being in combat as a US Marine, and being positive has only added to my depression. Sometimes the meds make me so sick that I don’t want to eat anything because of fear of which end it’s going to come out. I’ve known my diagnosis since July 2016 and I have been virally suppressed/undetectable since being on meds.
I am so lucky I’m not discriminated by my wife that is negative. We were not married or dating when I first got diagnosed but remember: just because you have HIV doesn’t make you any less deserving of being loved. You just have to be honest with your partner, explain your situation, be prepared for questions, and then take it from there. It can be super scary having to disclose your status to a partner but it’s the right thing to do. No one gave me the luxury of knowing the risks when I got it. That’s becsuse many people (1 in 7) don’t know their status. And others that may know their status may not disclose it for fear of discrimination, and if you don’t have insurance you may not have access to meds. Just be careful about who you disclose your status to. I look at it like this: If that person doesn’t need to know, I don’t tell them. Meaning that most of family doesn’t know, and only one or two close friends know. You have no legal/moral obligation to tell your siblings, relatives, co-workers, etc. However, I chose to tell my Mom and brother in case anything ever happened to me and I had to go to the hospital and was unconscious/incapacitated. I disclosed it to those I was in a relationship with because I felt a moral obligation to. Even though the risk of transmission is zero, it’s still something that you need to tell someone before you have sex with them. I disclose my status to all doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and anyone else that treats me for anything whether it be for physical or mental health. I disclosed it to two of my best friends because sometimes you need someone to talk to. Just be careful who you trust with your status because they may not respect your privacy the way you want them to. As archaic as it is, some states in the US have a legal requirement of disclosure to partners and if you don’t you may be opening yourself to prosecution. Even if you are undetectable, these laws still apply. Know the laws where you live. In Arkansas, it’s illegal for a positive person to marry a negative person. Other states criminalize transmission, non-disclosure, etc. It’s really sad that they put all the burden on the positive individual. As a result of fear, some people choose not to know their status for this fear alone. Which only makes things worse. When two people engage in sexual behavior whether it be protected or not, both know the risks. These laws were enacted in a time when HIV was a death sentence and don’t reflect the current treatment options that weren’t available at the time and slowly many of them are being changed.
Luckily in the US, when your CD4 count drops to a certain level the government helps tremendously in giving you access to antiretrovirals if you can’t afford it. But during that time they aren’t, they are highly contagious. I have the VA as a veteran and they put me on meds immediately. The annual cost of Genvoya is over $30,000 a year without insurance.
The meds are great at keeping the virus controlled and the risk of transmission to an uninfected partner is zero if you are virally suppressed/undetectable (suppressed generally means viral load of less than 200, and undetectable means viral load less than 50 per ml of blood). The CDC, NIHSS, and many other alphabet organizations have come to the agreement that the risk is negligible meaning that it’s so low it might as well be zero. Just google the following, U=U. This was thanks to several long term studies that they arrived at this conclusion. Basically at this point, scientists and doctors now have the burden of proving that transmission is possible in an undetectable patient rather than the opposite. The way my Doctor explained it to me is that the risk is so low that if I were to give it to my partner it would be considered a big deal because it’s so unbelievably rare that most likely there is another explanation for the transmission such as infidelity on her part, IV drug use needle sharing, or if I had treatment failure and/or medication resistant mutation of the virus.
It’s a lifelong commitment to take your HIV meds everyday but they work. At low levels of detectable viral load (less than 200) in semen normally only DNA and RNA fragments are found not the entire complete virus. If you are having depression or other problems from being positive, it’s important to talk to someone. It’s important that to learn to
1. Know your status
2. Accept your status
3. Take action to get on meds and adhere to it
4. Inform people that need to know of your status
5. Continue to monitor your CD4 and viral load regularly
6. Live a healthy lifestyle that limits alcohol and eat right
7. Remember you are not alone and you deserve to be loved. Don’t let your status get in the way of that
8. Seek counseling for any mental health issues or find a support group.
9. Don’t stop fighting
10. Live a long and healthy life.
Hi Agaba,
If your wife is on treatment and her viral load is undetectable then you won’t be at risk. If however her viral load is detectable, then you’re at risk of contracting HIV if you don’t use condoms.
I would also want to be helped. I have tested with my wife and she is positive and am negative. She is pregnant and she was started on medication. We use condom for sex but at times we have unprotected sex. Is her medicine able to help me not to acquire HIV? What should I really do? Because I have failed totally all the time to use condom. Were still young she is 24 and I am 28 newly wedded.
Hi Ella,
When a coupe are diagnosed at the same time, this can be very difficult to deal with. Often there is the quesiton of who infected who, and how has this happened to me. In time this will change. If you have a solid relationship then you might be OK. However, for other couples its simple too much to come to terms with. That said, you now both know that you’re positive. What this means is that you can start to control your HIV. By this I mean begin medication.
We often get asked if its possible to have a relationship when you’re positive and if you can have kids and the answer to both questions is yes. HIV is now a very controllable health condition, its not like it was in the past. Medication is excellent and people who are positive can expect to lead normal lives.
With regards to your specific situation, I can’t tell you what will happen. Its you and your partner who will need to make these decisions. If its any help, after the initial shock it does get easier.