Strategies for first line HIV therapy

May 2008     View PDF

Two common tests for checking immune health

Throughout your HIV disease, you will often use two test results: CD4 count, which is the number of an important type of immune cell, and HIV level (viral load), which is the amount of HIV found in a sample of your blood. Taken together with other blood tests, these results will give you a picture of the health of your immune system as it reacts to the HIV.

It’s important to be specific and reasonable about your goals in terms of lower HIV levels and higher CD4 counts. It can be very helpful to have already decided what you’ll switch to if you don’t reach them. Some consider their first regimen successful if it reduces their HIV levels to undetectable within the first few weeks. Others give their therapy up to six months to lower their levels to undetectable. The higher your HIV level before starting therapy, the longer it may take to suppress your HIV infection.