Once I've started treatment, how will I know it's working for me?

When HIV drug therapy is started—preferably with a powerful combination of drugs—the level of HIV should start to drop dramatically. This is where viral load testing comes in. During the first two months of therapy, an HIV-infected person's viral load should drop a minimum of 90%. In other words, someone who starts treatment with a viral load count of 100,000 should drop to 10,000 or less within two months. Within 4 to 6 months of starting therapy, the viral load should have dropped a lot more, hopefully below the level of the viral load test's sensitivity ("undetectable"). Sometimes undetectable means a count less than 400 or 500, but newer tests can detect as few as 50. Generally, the higher your viral load is before starting therapy, the longer it will take to become undetectable.

As for your CD4 cell count, you will likely see an increase between 100 and 200 cells in the first 12 to 18 months, and can gradually climb from there as long as viral load remains undetectable.

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