My brother was diagnosed recently with meningitis. He's still in the hospital, but he seems better. He just told our dad that he has AIDS. They said something about seeing if they could cleanse his blood or something of that nature. I'm really worried and I'd like to know how long do most people live after the HIV virus becomes full blown AIDS? Will my brother just become increasingly ill or will he still be able to live a quite normal life with medications? Please help me and answer my questions. I love him sooooooooo much. I'm not ready to let him go. Please tell me he can still outlive me or at least live a long life.

If he gets appropriate treatment and has a good response to treatment, he may be able to live a relatively healthy and functional life for years. I can't say for sure because I don't know if he's had treatment before and what his response has been. But there are good reasons to be very hopeful. People with AIDS often bounce back from very serious acute medical problems. The key is for him to get good treatment and to be very faithful to his medication regimen.