Hello I was infected on 28 April this year, and was diagnosed on 9 June after being hospitalised with seroconversion illness. At the time of diagnosis my cd4 count was 338 and 29%. In July it increased to 548 (29%) and in August to 648 (29%). In October it plummeted to 517 but the percentage increased to 33%. I am yet to start treatment. Work at the moment is very stressful and I am doing a lot of national and international travel. Could this explain the decrease in cd4 count? Or is the fact my percentage increased means I have nothing to worry about?

Many thanks

The answer to both of your questions is yes. Stress can certainly cause fluctuations in CD4 count. Over the summer what you were seeing was recovery of your CD4 count after acute infection. In general, the CD4 count can fluctuate because of time of day, stress, after immunizations, because of other ongoing medical conditions, different laboratories, among other reasons. I would not be concerned at this point, given that both the count and percent are in the normal range.