With the right treatment and care, most people living with HIV in the UK will have a more or less normal lifespan. A test that measures the number of CD4 cells in the blood, thus reflecting the state of the immune system.
When the CD4 count of an adult falls below , there is a high risk of opportunistic infections and serious illnesses. An undetectable viral load is the first goal of antiretroviral therapy. Measurement of the amount of virus in a blood sample, reported as number of HIV RNA copies per milliliter of blood plasma. Viral load is an important indicator of HIV progression and of how well treatment is working. When viral load is detectable, this indicates that HIV is replicating in the body.
If the person is taking HIV treatment but their viral load is detectable, the treatment is not working properly. There may still be a risk of HIV transmission to sexual partners. In fact, the most important causes of illness and death in people living with HIV are now quite similar to those in the general population.
They include heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, diabetes, depression and cancers. A wide range of factors affect your risk of developing these conditions. Other risk factors are within your power to change. You can increase your life expectancy by not smoking, being physically active, having a balanced diet, maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding excess alcohol or drug use, and remaining socially connected. Primary tabs View active tab Preview.
Rosalie Hayes. November Key points With the right treatment and care, people with HIV can live a normal lifespan. People who have a good response to HIV treatment have excellent long-term prospects. You can increase your life expectancy by not smoking and having a healthy lifestyle. Most people with HIV take a combination of medicines.
It's vital these are taken every day as recommended by your doctor. The goal of HIV treatment is to have an undetectable viral load. This means the level of HIV virus in your body is low enough to not be detected by a test. Without treatment, the immune system will become severely damaged, and life-threatening illnesses such as cancer and severe infections can occur. If you're planning on getting pregnant, it's important to talk to a GP. Although rare, it's possible to transmit HIV to your baby.
Anyone who has sex without a condom or shares needles is at risk of HIV infection. There are many effective ways to prevent or reduce the risk of HIV infection, including:. Speak to your local sexual health clinic or a GP for further advice about the best way to reduce your risk.
For people with HIV, if you have been taking effective HIV treatment and your viral load has been undetectable for 6 months or more, it means you cannot pass the virus on through sex. Moreover, HIV is really only part of the long-term concern. Even for those able to maintain an undetectable viral load, the risk of non-HIV-associated diseases, like cancer and heart disease , is far greater than in the general population and can occur anywhere from 10 to 15 years earlier.
Factors that influence life expectancy are either static fixed or dynamic able to change over time. Static factors , like race or sexual orientation, influence life expectancy because they are ones people are often unable to escape. For example, high levels of poverty in Black communities combined with a lack of access to health care and high levels of HIV stigma take back many of the gains seen in White communities.
Dynamic factors , by comparison, have a strong cause-and-effect relation to survival times. For instance, treatment adherence is directly related to disease progression. The less adherence is maintained, the greater the risk of drug resistance and treatment failure. With each failure, a person loses more and more treatment options. When looking at both static and dynamic risk factors, we can begin to identify where an individual can gain or lose life-years without even knowing it.
Among them:. It is important to remember that statistics are not a prognosis. They cannot predict what will happen during the course of an infection. They can only suggest what you steps you can take to minimize the risk of illness based on the factors you, as an individual, can readily change. Get information on prevention, symptoms, and treatment to better ensure a long and healthy life.
Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes. A pandemic of the poor: social disadvantage and the U. HIV epidemic. The American Psychologist. Aging well with HIV. Updated November 29, HIV treatment adherence, drug resistance, virologic failure: evolving concepts. Infectious Disorders Drug Targets. Mortality attributable to smoking among HIV-1—infected individuals: A nationwide, population-based cohort study.
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