Hi<\/p>\n
Because the ELISA and western blot HIV test results were positive, this means that you do have HIV.<\/p>\n
It sounds like you were not expecting this result and that you are still dealing with the shock.<\/p>\n
Hearing a health care worker calling you ‘lucky’ is very clearly different from how you actually feel, and wasn’t a particularly careful choice of words. People have the same response when told they are ‘lucky’ to be diagnosed now because treatment is available (compared to being diagnosed in the 80’s).<\/p>\n
However, regular CD4 counts in HIV-negative people, range from about 400 to 1600. Some people have naturally low counts and some have much higher levels, but if you are HIV+ then it is generally better to be at the higher end.<\/p>\n
I haven’t seen research that shows that people with much higher counts are more healthy on a day-to-day basis. However, starting off higher may mean that you do not need to start treatment so early.<\/p>\n
Although this may change in the future based on new research and new treatments, current guidelines recommend starting treatment before your CD4 count falls to below 200 cells\/mm3, and in practice this means starting while it is between 200 and 350 cells\/mm3.<\/p>\n
CD4 counts on average fall by about 50 cells\/mm3 a year – so this may mean you don’t need treatment for a while.<\/p>\n
However, these are all average figures, and you need to see how you respond individually, by building up a picture of your own results over the next year or so. There is a wide range of responses – some people progress more quickly and a few progress more slowly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have just been diagnosed HIV+ but am at this stage very confused, I have had three lots of bloods taken over a 7 day period and on the last lot of results I was told that the ELISA and western blot were positive.<\/p>\n
When the viral load results were returned It was measurement came back showing I had 7100 copies, but here is where I am lost. My T-CELL count is over 1000 and from what I have read this should not be the case.<\/p>\n
When I asked I was told that ‘I AM LUCKY’ – this is not a medical term or explanation, can you throw some light on it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,28,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-topics","category-cd4-and-viral-load","category-newly-diagnosed","category-starting-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","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=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}