Question
Can you live with meds?
21 November 2011. Related: All topics, Life expectancy, Side effects, Starting treatment.
Hi, can you live with out the drugs?
Answer
HIV for more people is a slowly progressing illness. This means that many people survive without taking treatment and for some people this might be as long as ten or more years.
However, if HIV is progressing, measured by your CD4 count slowly decreasing, this shows that you will need treatment at some time.
A very small percentage of HIV-positive people (less than one in 10,000) are able to control HIV (keep it undetectable) and keep a high CD4 count. These are probably the only people who may never need treatment.
Although treatment seems daunting before you start, most people find that within a month or two it just becomes a normal part of their everyday lives. For the one minute a day – seven minutes a week – they get a life expectancy that is similar to HIV negative people.
The worry about side effects before starting treatment is usually much worse than the actual experience from taking treatment. If you are unlucky and side effects cause problems, then switching to alternative meds is easy.
Comment