My partner of 4 years was just diagnosis with AIDS one month ago. His viral load is 735K and his CD-4 are 36. The doctor seems to feel he has been positive for about 4 years. He has not had any symptoms or problems until he started his medication. He is currently on Sestiva and Trevada. About 2 weeks after starting therapy, he became very sick with high spikey fevers of over 104 and terrible headackes, nausea, vomitting and abdominal pain. The docs in the hospital say he is experiencing reconstitution of the immune system as well as reactivation of CMV. They also feel is may be suffering from MAC. My question is, can he bounce back from this type of thing. Is it possible to get better if you have MAC and CMV. He seems sicker now than before he started the meds. By the way, I was tested and am negative.

Sorry to hear about the health challenges that your partner is experiencing. It is not uncommon for someone to be diagnosed with HIV with a very low CD4 count. But one of the risks of waiting to start therapy with CD4 counts this low is the possibility of immune reconstitution from a latent infection like CMV or MAC. In spite of this problem the expectation is that he should be able to get through this and be fine. Sometimes immune reconstitution syndrome may occur in waves over the course of weeks to months, but generally the subsequent episodes are not as severe. Hope that this information helps.