I was recently diagnosed hiv+. I have been taking sustiva, viread, and epavir for 30 days now and have been feeling great. Much better than before starting the meds. My viral load was 215,000 and tcell 185. I will be going for viral load count and tcell count blood work in a couple of weeks to see if they are working. Is this a good combo of meds and if they are working, how long can I expect them to work? Is it possible to be on the same meds for 10 - 20 years?

That is a good combination with some mof the best published results of HIV activity out to 3 years. Once a person reaches a viral load below the detection limit of 50 copies then the long term control of the virus is good if adherence is near perfect. If there previously was imperfect adherence or a history of failure with a regimen then long-term control may be more of a problem. Some reason studies have predicted that persons who are doing well (undetectable virus levels without a history of failure) may continue to do well for > 10 years. We still have only 6-7 years of experience with the more potent regimens so predicting the future is problematic but there is reason to be confident that many persons will do well for > 10-20 years. KH