Hi doctor, I am Tom from Italy, I've a question for a friend of mine, who for the last 7 months (date of discovery virus) has CD4 230 and a viral load of 1800. Are these results alarming or is there no reason to panic yet?? he would liked to enter the reyataz truvada protocol, but they refused him because of his low viral load to enter it schould be 5000, they say.

Thank you very mutch for your time, and come and boost your cd4 levels in Italy, the healthy and delicious food will do that here, tom

Buon giorno, Tom.

Thanks for your post from one of most favorite places in the world.

Your friend has lab values that tell us that it's time to seriously consider starting on treatment for HIV. No reason to panic-- but yes, he needs to start in the near future. It's too bad that he's ineligible for the study. In cases like his, we'll sometimes rescreen the patient for the study. It wouldn't surprise me that on a second set of labs that his viral load might meet the entry criteria.

I hope this helps. I'll be back in Italy just as soon as my medical partners give me a week off. BY