BEING HUMAN MEANS A SIMPLE LIFE WITH GOOD FAITH AND ACTION
Is My Treatment Regimen Working?
Is My Treatment Regimen Working?
How will I know if my HIV treatment regimen
is working?
Your health care provider will use two important blood tests
to monitor your HIV treatment:
CD4 count
and viral load
test. e results of the tests will help your health care provider
determine if the anti-HIV medications in your treatment regimen
are working.
What is a CD4 count?
HIV attacks the immune system, destroying the system’s
infectionghting CD4 cells. Keeping the immune system
healthy is an important goal of HIV treatment.
e CD4 count measures the number of CD4 cells in a
sample of blood. e CD4 count of a healthy person ranges
from 500 to 1,200 cells/mm3
. An HIV-infected person with a
CD4 count of less than 200 cells/mm3
has AIDS.
Because a falling CD4 count is a sign that HIV is damaging
the immune system, the test is used to monitor HIV
infection. Once treatment is started, the CD4 count is also
used to monitor the eectiveness of anti-HIV medications.
Once you start treatment, you should have a CD4 count once
every 3 to 4 months. An increasing CD4 count is a sign that
the immune system is recovering. If your regimen is working
well, you need a CD4 count only once every 6 to 12 months.
What is a viral load test?
Preventing HIV from multiplying is another important goal
of HIV treatment. e viral load test measures the amount of
HIV in the blood. It’s the best measure of how well anti-HIV
medications are controlling the virus.
e best sign that treatment is working is reaching and
maintaining an . An undetectable
viral load doesn’t mean that you’re cured. It means that the
amount of HIV in your blood is too low to be detected by
the viral load test.
Once you start treatment, you should have a viral load test
within 2 to 8 weeks and then once every 4 to 8 weeks until
your viral load is undetectable. You need the test done only
every 3 to 4 months once your viral load is undetectable. If
you have an undetectable viral load for more than 2 or 3
years, your health care provider may recommend viral load
testing once every 6 months.
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