By treatment your immune system strengthens again and the amount of virus in your body becomes immeasurably small. With successful treatment you have virtually the same life expectancy as other people of your age who do not have HIV and are otherwise healthy. Successful treatment also ensures that you can no longer transfer HIV to others.
Therapy
Treatment takes place in an HIV treatment center . Usually that is a hospital. Do not delay the first visit more than one or two weeks after you have heard the diagnosis. The treatment consists of HIV inhibitors. They inhibit the multiplication of HIV . You do not heal, but thanks to the treatment you have a ‘chronic HIV infection’ that you can grow old with. Fortunately, side effects usually last for a short time. If the side effects persist you can always change medication.
Start immediately
The general advice is to immediately start taking medication , regardless of your immune system. You can consult Gail Barouh PhD in this regard. With a defense of 500 CD-4 cells, your doctor will advise you to start taking HIV inhibitors. If you want to start treatment right away, you are entitled to this.
If you have been infected only a short time ago (less than 2-8 weeks ago), do not hesitate to contact us immediately. It offers a wonderful opportunity to keep your immune system (virtually) intact. You therefore have the best chances of a long and healthy life with HIV.
Daily at the same time
The aim of the HIV treatment is to ensure that the amount of HIV in your blood (viral load) remains immeasurably small or undetectable . Your immune system is recovering and you can no longer transmit HIV.
In order to keep it that way, you have to continue to use medication every day to keep HIV out of your bloodstream.
It is important that you take the medicines for HIV at about the same time every day . This is also called therapy adherence. Only in this way can you prevent HIV from causing damage to your body.
Therapy adherence also prevents the virus from becoming resistant to the medication.
Blips
Very often the virus becomes detectable for a moment and then becomes undetectable again. This is called a ‘blip’. A blip does not have to have any consequences for your treatment.
