Question
How long can someone live with HIV?
2 January 2018. Related: All topics, Life expectancy.
How long can a man live with HIV if he was around 18 years old and was healthy when he was infected, both with and without medication?
Answer
Modern HIV drugs mean that life expectancy is now similar for HIV positive people to the general population.
This is based on being diagnosed early and having access to treatment.
The wide range of factors related to life expectancy include: where you live, your income, access to health care, lifestyle (alcohol, drugs, tobacco, exercise and diet) and other infections like hepatitis, genetics and chance – good or bad luck.
Several large studies have been published showing that life expectancy for HIV positive people is very good, and near to an HIV negative person.
Without treatment, HIV will slowly progress in nearly everyone. This speed that HIV progresses varies from a few years to more than 20 years.
Note: this answer was updated in January 2018 from a question posted in August 2008..
sir,
i am hiv positive 18 months back my wbc count 4600cells/cumm RBC 5.17mill/cumm
i test on 18 October 2012 wbc count 7200cell/cumm RBC 5.33 mill/cumm kindly tell me this results good or bad and once infected hiv reduce wbc count but this results increase
Hi Tom,
I’m sorry to hear how worried you are about your partner. Do you have any support?
Unfortunately there’s no way to know how well he is doing without being tested. If he has been positive for 14 years without treatment it’s likely his CD4 count is pretty low. This would mean he is at risk of developing opportunistic infections such as TB or pneumonia. If he doesn’t access medical care it is likely that he will get very ill at some point. Although HIV treatment is still effective at low CD4 counts the damage which can be done by opportunistic infections is often much worse than HIV itself, and harder to treat.
What is it about medication that your partner doesn’t believe in? Treatment today is much safer and more effective than it was 14 years ago. Our Introduction to combination therapy guide answers many questions people have about starting treatment. It might help you to find a way to start this conversation with your partner.
hi,my partner has been HIV+ for 14 years with no medication. He doesn’t believe in medication. He has had no medical checks for a good few years, it’s a touchy subject to tackle. I worry most days,are there any signs to tell if he is getting sick?
Hi AJ, I’m very sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis. Finding out you have HIV can be very overwhelming. Please follow this link to our page about how to deal with a new diagnosis.
I was diagnosed just this afternoon with HIV. I’m 26 and I don’t feel ill so I was shocked and I don’t know what to do. How long would I live? I was advised by the medic to have a confirmatory test first and follow the medcation once confirmed. My dilemma right now is how would I handle it? Please help me. I don’t know what to do. I just don’t know. Why me?
Hi. The only way to know if you have HIV is to take a test. It will be better for your health to know if you have HIV and better to know if you do not have it. Lots of people worry about being HIV positive when they don;t have the virus. Lots of people who are HIV positive also continue to lead long, active and full lives. Modern treatment means that HIV positive people can have similar life expectancy to HIV negative people.
I’m scared I think I might have HIV and I’m 17… no one will like me anymore. How long can I live?
It sounds like your sister has a good doctor. A CD4 count of 213 is still very good and the treatment she has been recommended is good and should work well. Most people get a very good response and then continue living for many years – perhaps another 20, 30 or 40 years :)
Hi, my sister is 28 years of age and is infected by HIV. Her immune system is too low and also her CD4 count was 213. Last week she was suggested to take duovir n lopimune. can u saw how long my sister will live?
A CD4 count above 350 is still pretty good and as long as it stays this high, treatment guidelines in South Africa (and the UK) do not recommend the need to start treatment.
Until you get to start treatment, your CD4 count is likely to slowly go down. How quickly this happens varies a lots between different people though.
It is not clear whether your plan to abstain was from sex? If yes, it is unlikely to make any difference to you health, unless having sex is linked to other risks – ie if you only have sex when you are drunk, abstaining from sex may have other health benefits. You will also be at less risk of STIs, but condoms could protect you against many of these.
Just because you are positive, doesn’t mean you have to stop having sex, so long as you take care not to pass the virus on to your partners.