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 Diane, I am sorry to hear about your experiences. What is the name of the pill you are taking?
Unfortunately it is not possible to stop taking them/reduce them. If you were to stop HIV would continue to be active in your body and impact on your health. If you choose to reduce the medication, there is a risk of resistance and treatment not working as well. This leading to needing to switch medication and/or being unable to manage HIV.
Over how long have you been trying to lose this weight? and have you discussed your difficulties with your doctor?
I’ve been on HIV since I was diagnosed. I don’t know my CD4 count but I don’t have a viral load. Is possible for me to stop taking my meds or halfing them at least? Sadly for me it’s about the weight gain. I didn’t take my meds one time because I was sick and couldn’t keep anything down. I was in the ER and had been 4 days the doctor asked me if I just had a major weight lose because I had flappy skin on my stomach. Whatever I did on meds I cannot lose weight. I exercise, eat right. Basically I hardly eat and no matter what I can’t lose weight. I used to weigh 125 and now I weigh 170 and it’s all in the front. I hate it and I know it’s this pill. Is there anything I can do? I don’t want to be ungrateful for the fact that the meds have saved my life but I really want to die because of the weight. I had a perfect body. Now I have basically nothing except no viral load and a fat gut.
Hi Just me, case studies about people living with HIV without treatment are very rare. In these cases people have an innate immune response to HIV that prevents HIV impacting their immune system.
This is incredibly rare and is not something that can be applied to someone being able to do.
For the general population HIV carries a natural progression in which it damages the immune system and can develop into AIDS prior to unfavourable outcomes including death. Treatment is the only known way and evidence backed method of preventing AIDS and enabling someone to live with a similar life expectancy of someone living without HIV.
Is there a reason that your partner is not on treatment?
Hi Kevin.
I would be keen to talk to you if possible?
I’m looking for case studies for survivors without treatment? Not fir science but to show my partner it’s doable.