Thank-you for your email.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sorry to hear you are so worried by your CD4 percentage. But it\u2019s important to try not to focus too much on these numbers. Your CD4 count, viral load and CD4 percentage are all doing very well. Your response to treatment is very good, especially after starting with such a low CD4 count.<\/p>\n
Your CD4 % is a very normal rate for somebody with a CD4 count of 260. Unless your CD4 percentage is dropping it is unlikely that there is any need to worry. As with your CD4 count it is likely that this will gradually increase over time. But CD4 percentages change gradually and you shouldn\u2019t expect any sudden increase.<\/p>\n
AIDS as a term is now very rarely used, and is usually not a helpful term. Your CD4 count is good and your viral load is exactly where you want it! AIDS is sometimes used to refer to a CD4 count under 200, but with your CD4 count and good health you would not longer be seen as having AIDS.<\/p>\n
One thing to watch out for is how anxious and depressed you are feeling. Efavirenz is linked to side effects of depression. If you have noticed an increased anxiety or lowering of mood since starting efavirenz this may be a side effect of the treatment. Many people find that changing to an alternative drug can greatly improve their mental state. Please follow this link for more information about efavirenz side effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After 5 years on successful treatment \u2013 with efavirenz, lamivudine and abacavir and an undetectable Viral Load of less than 50copies for 4.5years, today I received my highest CD4 lab result of 260!<\/p>\n
Hooray… BUT unfortunately, this good news was short lived, as my CD4 percentage is still extremely low at only 13%.<\/p>\n
Why, won\u2019t my immune system respond fully to HAART after 5 years? <\/p>\n
This is making me extremely anxious and depressed.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m guessing that after 5 years it will not fully recover and I will always have this AIDS diagnosis.<\/p>\n
My baseline viral load at diagnosis was 54,000 and CD4 count 03 (1%).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-topics","category-cd4-and-viral-load"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8292","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}