I recently had a drop of nearly 300 in my cd4 counts. 3 months ago i was at 700 and now i'm at 420. Additionally, my viral load grew from 10,000 to 40,000 in those three months. i was infected about a year ago and only found out 3 months ago I was pos. Is it normal to have such a dramatic change in my numbers? My doctor recommended I go on meds now because of the change, but I wonder if I should be concerned even more now as opposed to where I was only 3 months ago.

Another important number to follow is the CD4 percent. It is a more stable number over time. If the CD4 percent has not changed, then the change in CD4 count may not be significant. If the CD4 percent has decreased by 3-5% or more, then that decline, along with the viral load increase is significant and treatment may be warranted. The decision to start is not urgent. Another set of numbers will tell you where the trend is going.