Dr., for a person male, 20 years old, infected within the last 6 months. If able to afford the best medicine, took it and adhered strictly, exercised, ate right, and hopefully responded well to the treatment, how long can the person realistically hope to be around. I know it's definitely a hard question; I'd rather honesty than overly cautious or optimistic. Thank you very very much.

The totally honest answer is that things are changing so fast that we don't know. The bottom line is that you should be around and healthy for a long, long time, probably a normal life span, if you can do all the things right that you talked about. For someone starting therapy now, who can keep up with the demands of the meds, and take care of themselves, my feeling is that each round of treatment should last long enough for a new round of drugs to be available.

That sounds great, and that's what you should focus on, but here are some things that are sobering. It is going to be hard as hell to take every pill on time for the rest of your life. It can be harder the longer it goes on. There are side effects of treatment, some of which are annoying, and others may be hard to live with. We don't really know if there are long term risks of the medications (although there are some really clear bad risks of not treating the virus).

It is going to be hard work, but you should be able to live a full and fullfilled life. Best of luck

ATP