Once diagnosed with HIV what is a patient's prognosis?

Answer 1

This is probably the first question that anyone who is diagnosed HIV-positive will want to ask .. and the honest answer is that, because there are so many variables, it can be very difficult to predict. The first thing to make clear is that the general prognosis has imporved dramatically since the first AIDS cases were diagnosed in the early 1980s, when most patients would die within a few months; but this it is very often that image of how it was in the 1980s that lingers on in peoples perceptions of what being HIV-positive means. Two important advances have changed the outlook: # The discovery that AIDS was caused by HIV (along with the knowledge that it generally takes very many years for HIV to devlop into AIDS and understaning of how to treat the individual AIDS-defining illnesses). # The development and introduction HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy). Today the situation is that, provided the infected person receives effective anti-HIV treatment before the immune system has been severely damaged - and that a person takes their drugs properly - then they could live a more or less normal life span, in more or less good health. Research into the prognosis of people starting treatment for the first time (which can be many years after diagnosis) indicates that the risk of becoming very ill or dying because of HIV within the next three years is linked to five key factors: * having a CD4 count below 200 * having a viral load above 100,000 at the time of starting treatment * being aged over 50 * being an injecting drug user * having had a prior AIDS-defining illness It is for this reason that those approaching 50 will generally be advised to consider an earlier start to treatment than would normally be the case. It is however important to note that, even with the best available medical care, effective treatment involves more that just taking a few pills every day .. it involves new routines / habits, a great deal of commonsense and some major lifestyle adjustments. It is not an easy option and it is not a cause for any complacency in taking precations to avoid getting infected. The prognosis for people with little or no access to specialist HIV services or health care is much less optimistic, with HIV usually causing illness and death within five to ten years. However, even where the relatively costly HIV drugs are not available, the use of cheaper treatments for infections such as TB and PCP can considerably improve life expectancy and quality of life.