Monitor CD4 Once You're A Pozzie!

I told a new blog friend of mine that there were instances wherein I found blogs of pozzies with high CD4 counts when they got diagnosed, then after a year, their CD4 counts are less than 200 already. Some had 300+ then after 5 months , a sudden drop to 100+. Sad, I know but we all should learn from this. HIV is a killer virus. So we should never neglect it even we feel healthy and not at all sick. I read this article from the net:

"HIV disease is a continuum of progressive damage to the immune system from the time of infection to the manifestation of severe immunologic damage by opportunistic infections (OI), neoplasms, wasting, or low CD4 lymphocyte count that define AIDS. The time it takes to traverse this spectrum varies greatly, ranging from 1 year or less in some persons to a still unknown upper limit in others that has reached nearly 20 years in a few individuals. The period from infection to development of AIDS is known as the incubation period. The period from an AIDS diagnosis to death has been studied separately as AIDS survival time. "


What is progressive? Progressive here simply means that HIV can lead to AIDS if left unmonitored!


"The length of the AIDS incubation period means that laboratory tests to identify persons at high risk of disease progression are needed to guide clinical decisions in asymptomatic seropositive persons, such as when to begin antiviral therapy and prophylaxis against OI. Because depletion of CD4+ T lymphocytes is the hallmark and the apparent source of the central immune defect of HIV disease, determination of the CD4 lymphocyte count (or percentage) has been the most important laboratory marker of disease progression. Absolute CD4 lymphocyte count or percentage correlates strongly with AIDS-defining disease, has been included in the surveillance case definition of AIDS since 1993, and has been used to set indications for therapy."


So what does this mean? It means that since we know that HIV is a progressive disease, a pozzie should be on surveillance mode from the time he was diagnosed. He should get his CD4 fast and have it checked regularly (usually every 3 or 6 months). Don't wait too long to have it checked because you'll never know it's rate of progression. To some it's slow but to some it's fast. 


Don't wait. Act now! If you're a pozzie, monitor your CD4 regularly. I'm not here to scare you but you have to take HIV seriously! It is your responsibility to yourself and to your loved ones. Always remember that you have a virus multiplying inside you and the best way to protect yourself is knowing when to get your medications before the OI's attack you. 

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