my partner has been on mac meds for almost 2 years his cd4 was 9 when we started this. After going into "iris" mac appeared in the lung and spleen. his cd4s are creaping along and we are now at 99, our doctor thinks the sheer amount of medication might be holding back cd4 production. the lung is clear like 99.9999 better there are still a couple of micro cysts in the spleen. In a month the doctor wants to take my partner off the mac meds if cd4s go up even a point. viral load is undetectable and he is at 19%. sorry cant remember what that factor is. I think its white blood cells, over all there has been consistant improvement. my worry is if we take him off the mac meds at this low number, wont the mac just come back? Is it possible that he could be on them for a very very long time?

Thank you and to everyone working on these issuses,

Hello and thanks for posting.

With HIV medications, people who are diagnosed with advanced disease and complications, like MAC and expect their immune health to improve (and risks of recurrence decrease). MAC treatments can be given for a very long time in some patients.

Preventive treatment for MAC recurrence (we call secondary prophylaxis) can safely be stopped when the patient is on suppressive HIV treatment and the CD4 count is greater than 100 for 3 months.

Hope that helps, BY