Hi<\/p>\n
I’m sorry to hear about your diagnosis – I hope you are coping ok with this as it usually takes a while to sink in. It sounds like you are doing the best thing, by taking control of the situation and finding out about treatment and how to get the best care.<\/p>\n
First of all, in the UK you can be treated at any clinic that you choose. HIV testing and treatment is still covered by a separate NHS service to your regular GP services. GUM clinics – where most testing is still performed – are open access clinics, and you can register in Manchester, London or anywhere else.<\/p>\n
It is generally true that doctor and clinic with more experience (ie the largest and most established clinics) tend to get better results for their patients, but a lot has changed in the last few years.<\/p>\n
While most of the larger clinics are in London, Manchester has several large long-running clinics where you should get excellent care. Also, the importance of more experienced doctors tends to become more important if you have an unusual or difficult complication.<\/p>\n
For testing, and routine CD4 and viral load monitoring, and for other general advice now, then it shouldn’t matter where you are seen. You should ask for a resistance test though as this should be included for everyone that is newly diagnosed.<\/p>\n
As you may not need treatment for several years, then there may not be any advantage to change for these tests.<\/p>\n
If and when you come to start treatment, then treatment options you are offered should also be similar in both London and Manchester – but checking this closer to the time would be a good idea. If you wanted to use a treatment that wasn’t offered in Manchester you could still register at a different clinic then.<\/p>\n
As to long term survival – both Manchester and London should tell you that so long as you are careful with your general health, and careful to not miss doses of HIV treatment when you come to start treatment, then you should expect to lead a normal natural life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hi<\/p>\n
I found out this week that I am HIV-positive. I am still waiting for confirmation test results and CD4 \/ viral load results.<\/p>\n
I live in Manchester but am advised that the best doctors and clinics to treat HIV are in London and that they will give me the best advice\/chance of long term survival.<\/p>\n
Is this true? and if so, is it ok for me to be treated in London even though I live in Manchester?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,9,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-access-to-treatment","category-all-topics","category-cd4-and-viral-load","category-starting-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}