POZ Community Forums
Main Forums => Living With HIV => Topic started by: Seeker on November 20, 2009, 09:16:27 pm
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Would appreciate some feedback...I undertand that we talk a lot about CD 4 numbers and the difference between being HIV+ and the somewhat arbitrary 200 range for AIDS....guess I thought you were "one or the other"...since my count was 198 when I got my test results then after a month on atripla numbers improved to 248 I thought of myself again as HIV+ but in one of her responses to another question recently Ann gave me the impression that it's widely held that once your numbers are low enough to be regarded as having AIDS then you are always in that category even if your numbers increase....again--not to make a point of labels--maybe it's a personal thing--for me I prefer to think of myself as being HIV+, ---would appreciate your reactions....
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Strictly speaking the CDC uses the A-C 1-3 classification which can be found here:
http://www.aidsetc.org/aidsetc?page=cm-105_disease#t-1
Strictly speaking again, because stopping treatment would soon see you return to your pre-treatment state of immune health, the lowest/worst ever classification is the diagnosis.
But in real life this is poppycock. Ill people/people with CD4 under 200 are usually said to have AIDS, my clinic notes say I was diagnosed with A3 HIV infection, current status A2 and don't mention AIDS. Likewise my clinic would probably not count bacterial pneumonia or candidiasis as AIDS-defining conditions. There you go. It is indeed a label. Sometimes it is necessary for entitlement/historical monitoring purposes.
- matt
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you might want to check out the discussion in this thread define low cd4 and aids (http://"http://forums.poz.com/index.php?topic=29847")