am 28 with cd4 280 and vl 595. wants to start art bearing in mind that i still want to have a child. i would like to start with recent Rx or be on the once that are on trial, and i would appreciate it if i can get prescription of once/day if possible.Which Rx can i take? Staying in SA,thanks for giving us hope

Thank you for your post.

With a CD4 count below 300, but very low viral load, there is debate about whether you should be on HIV medications or not-- recommendations for persons in your situation vary from country to country.

If your were my patient and were asymptomatic, I would still probably advise you to consider starting sometime in the near future; or to have close clinical and laboratory monitoring of your symptoms and laboratory results.

There are a variety of HIV medications that can be administered once-daily, in our country (US) this list includes medications from all conventional drug classes (NRTIs, NNRTIs and PIs). The only thing of note is that your desire to become pregnant makes efavirenz (Sustiva, Stocrin) not such a good thing, because of the risk of birth defects.

I'd speak to your healthcare providers and discuss possible options.

Good luck, good health to you. BY