Could you please help me to understand,what my status,of my illiness is,with my cd4 and rna viral load,which was 423 cd4 and rna viral load 600,Then changing in 3 weeks to 400 cd4 and RNA Viral Load rising to 2,000.I have had AIDS since 1987 JAN.I don`t take any medications now or ever befor to improve,But should I start now?Thank You

The good news is that your disease is really quite mild. Normal CD4 counts are about 600 to 1400 depending on your lab. 400 and 423 for your cd4 count are about as identical as you could expect since the levels change. It represents vey modest decreases in your CD4 count, not usually at a level that would lead to problems. A viral load (or RNA) of 600 is quite low, below the level most people would consider starting treatment. The test has a variability of about 3 fold day to day, so your followup of 2000 is not very different, and is still low.

When to start therapy is a tough decision and you need to consider lots of factors, including how you feel about taking meds versus how you feel about giving the virus any chances at all. In general, I would not be in any hurry to start antiviral treatment for someone with your numbers. However, you should have things checked every 3 months, and take care of all the other health issues (nutrition, excersize, quit smoking, knock off any recreational drugs and protect yourself from other infections including other sexually transmitted diseases).

ATP