diagnosed with 'AIDS' can we benefit if?

[sanitex]

hello guys, sometimes i keep asking what's all this and why this disease still remain incureable,like most
of us that diagnosed with aids  so even though our cd4 get upto 1500 they  still classify us as  aids.

 If your CD4 count drops below 200, you have "AIDS," and the classificaiton doesn't go away, but so what? What matters is what happens to your CD4 count on therapy. It's far more likely to go up than down. does it mean that even if there's a cure
we won't benefit from it? how about those who didn't sick only have diarrhrea as symptom does it mean that their immune
system has died why the therapy (ARVs)help it to rise again if to compare on what people are saying about AIDs.

[tednlou2]

I think you're right and I know many docs don't like to focus on the AIDS word once your numbers go up.  I also know many who don't like the phrase, "full-blown AIDS".

I would just say that being told you have AIDS does lead to some mental baggage for many people.  I think being told I had AIDS has caused me to feel more fragile, depressed with anxiety than I would have if I had gotten tested with the numbers I have now and told I have HIV, but my immune system is still in good shape.  It messed with my mind for sure.

[mecch]

does it mean that even if there's a cure we won't benefit from it?

Depends on what you mean by "cure".
Depends on what the public means by "cure".

Please keep in mind that the research is suggesting different possibilities for HIV+ and HIV- people.

"Cures" might include

-  a vaccine that makes HIV- people become positive for HIV and have immunity from getting sick.  For example, I had a vaccine for Hep B, and it took.  Then years later I had contact with Hep B, and my immune system fought it off.  My swiss doctor easily found this in my blood - antigens created by the Hep B vaccine and antigens created against real Hep B.

- genetic modications that cause HIV- to have a body that HIV cannot infect.

-  "vaccines" for HIV+ people that will improve immune response to the point HIV becomes a minor infection

- genetic modifications of HIV+ peoples body so that an active HIV infection disappears.

- drugs for HIV+ people that clear the standing resevoir of HIV in a persons body, but the body remains open to a new HIV infection in the future.

-  instant PEP for people just exposed to HIV can be seen as a "cure" already.


SO my dear, what do you mean by "cure". 

[sanitex]

 

SO my dear, what do you mean by "cure". 
[/quote]
mecch what i mean by cure is those who diagnosed with low cd4 "exmple"AIDS
ARE THEY NOT INCLUDED FOR THE CURE?assuming if there's a cure now does it mean that
it's only for the high cd4 people could recieve the benefit.[

[sanitex]

I think you're right and I know many docs don't like to focus on the AIDS word once your numbers go up.  I also know many who don't like the phrase, "full-blown AIDS".


dear tednlou2 i thought you get me right because i wonder and even get shame sometime when my ID doc
try explain some issue to me he always mention AIDS .

[leatherman]

If your CD4 count drops below 200, you have "AIDS," and the classificaiton doesn't go away, but so what?

in the US, having that "AIDS" classification can allow you to have better access to meds, doctors, treatments and financial support.

plus for many people, having the "AIDS" label (and that's all it is - a label. a label that explains a medical condition) tells you part of the experience that they have gone through with this disease. It tells you that at one time they were probably quite deadly sick with a high VL , <200 cd4 and an OI. The label of "HIV+" covers a wide range of people from sick to never sick, on meds to never taking medications, from just tested to maybe 15 yrs of knowing.

So even though I can understand some people are troubled by difference in the simple words of "HIV+" and "AIDS", rather than saying that I'm just HIV positive and taking meds, I tell people that I have had AIDS and was in the hospital two times and nearly died and that now I'm taking meds and doing much better. I (thankfully) can say that I have been living with and surviving AIDS for nearly 20 yrs.

Also while I understand that some people are troubled by the phrase "full-blown AIDS", I tell you what, when you have been lying in a hospital for days being treated and the doctors still aren't sure whether you're going to live or die, you know what "full-blown AIDS" is and you know you have it.

[mecch]

mecch what i mean by cure is those who diagnosed with low cd4 "exmple"AIDS
ARE THEY NOT INCLUDED FOR THE CURE?assuming if there's a cure now does it mean that
it's only for the high cd4 people could recieve the benefit.[

Not at all. Be hopeful, several "cures" that have been imagined would help anyone who is HIV+.

[sanitex]

Not at all. Be hopeful, several "cures" that have been imagined would help anyone who is HIV+.

mecch,you have now anwser my question without going round and round.why i brought this topic was,
sometime kept on asking myself how i got this disease and when the cure will eventualy come true as we
keep on hoping for last day of life not for the cure .

mecch sorry for what i posted before i thought i'm getting into senility it was wrong posting.

[mecch]

I am sorry, it seems I do not understand your question, finally.

I don't see the relationship between "how you got the disease" and what will happen when there is a cure.

(Maybe your friends have been luckier than you to avoid HIV up to now.)

I also don't understand why you see a relationship between stigmatization and a possible cure. 

Maybe you are asking many different questions?  I give up.

Best to you!

[sanitex]

mecch i have repost what i wrote before which was wrong posting to thread and topic.

[wtfimpoz]

hello guys, sometimes i keep asking what's all this and why this disease still remain incureable,like most
of us that diagnosed with aids  so even though our cd4 get upto 1500 they  still classify us as  aids.

 If your CD4 count drops below 200, you have "AIDS," and the classificaiton doesn't go away, but so what? What matters is what happens to your CD4 count on therapy. It's far more likely to go up than down. does it mean that even if there's a cure
we won't benefit from it? how about those who didn't sick only have diarrhrea as symptom does it mean that their immune
system has died why the therapy (ARVs)help it to rise again if to compare on what people are saying about AIDs.

My partner and I were discussing this earlier this evening.  What good does the term "AIDS" confer to the understanding of a disease whose effects seem to occur on a spectrum of severity?  AIDS, as near as I can tell, is a line in the sand which has arbitrarily been drawn at having ONCE had t cell levels drop below 200, and having experienced any of a number of "AIDS Defining illnesses", some of which aren't really that unique to HIV.  Its not inherently more predictive of the liklihood of future HIV complications than, say, CD4 levels at 201.  Personally, I think the term exists because its scary.  "AIDS" has caputred the public imagination much more strongly than "HIV".  It has a broader set of cannotations.  Those same cannotations though stigmatize us all.