Hi, my father is 48 and was diagnosed Hiv+ 2 years back. doctors recommend of start the treatment. He last reports show Viral load between 100000 to 200000 and CD4 between 275 to 350. last report is showing cd4 as 331 and viral load 125000. i have three questions:- 1. Can we delay treatment as my father has no health issues so far?.....he does yoga and excersise every day. 2.what are the symptoms to start treatment ( i mean does the patient feel anything abnormal?). 3.how to know which medicine will suit him the most. Frankly speaking my father is a big business man. With regular excersise and his office work he keeps himself busy the whole day. Has no health problem so far and so we believe that treatment can be delayed. Considering all this please answer to my questions. Thank you.

I recommend he start therapy with little further delay assuming he is willing. He needs to connect with an HIV-specialist with whom mhe is comfortable to best individualize his regimen based on overall health and life style concerns. Current favorite regimens include efavirenz based (such as Atripla), protease inhibitor based (often boosted darunavir or atazanavir), or raltegravie basesd. Drug side effects are variable and depend on which regimen chosen. KH