What every newly diagnosed HIV+ person should know.

(I hope the information here will be useful for people who are newly diagnosed with HIV. The information here is only a snapshot of what worked for me. Please always consult your doctor because he/she will have a clearer picture of your overall health.)

This is not a death sentence and you are not going to die in the next 10-20 years if you take care of yourself. When I was newly diagnosed at AFA's anonymous test site in 2002, the doctor told me one thing and it made me feel a lot better. "Having HIV is like having a chronic illness, not unlike diabetes or kidney problems. In fact, kidney patients have it a lot worse." That was the statement that gave me hope and since my diagnosis, I had never suffered any depression partly because those who subsequently knew about me had been very supportive and did not treat me any differently. Stay optimistic. It really helps. Most people I know started treatment within 3-4 years. I only started treatment in late 2011. This brings me to my first point:

1) Choose who you tell about your status carefully. 

I tell people about my status on a "need-to-know-basis". That means that if there is no need for them to know, I won't tell them. After my diagnosis, I immediately told my 3 best friends. I was very sure that they will accept me even if I am positive. My advice to people who are newly diagnosed is that if you have the slightest shred of uncertainty as to whether a friend will accept you, I suggest you hold back until you are very sure. The reason why I say this is because you do not want to risk falling into depression because of rejection. Like I said before, take care of your health. Optimism will really go a long way in your fight against this infection. You are not alone in this. If you need help, Action for AIDS has got support groups with for pozzies like us. 

2) The Science of HIV. (The more you know, the less fear you will have).

It is very important that every newly diagnosed HIV+ arm themselves with knowledge about the infection. HIV is not AIDS. HIV the name of a virus (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). HIV causes AIDS, just like the Influenza Virus causes Flu. HIV infection, if left untreated, will lead to AIDS. Bear in mind this is something we do not want and we take medication to prevent this from happening. Here is a very simplified explanation:

In your body, there are white blood cells that help fight infection. HIV infect and kill some of these white blood cells, specifically the CD4 cells and causes your body to be unable to fight simple infections. Throughout the course of your infection your CD4 cell numbers will keep on dropping. 

An HIV+ person is considered to have AIDS if:

i) he has an infection that normal healthy people usually will not have OR

ii) CD4 cell counts are below 200.

The main idea of HIV medication is to keep the CD4 cell counts above 200 because from statistics, if the cell counts fall below 200, chances of those HIV-related infections surfacing becomes high.

CD4 cell counts and Viral Load

Rule: Keep CD4 cell counts high, Viral Load low

CD4:

So for a start, a newly diagnosed person should always go for a test to find out the current CD4 cell counts and monitor it. You doctor may start you off medication when you CD4 cell counts drop below 500 or 350 depending. Nowadays, it's a common practice to start medication if CD4 drops below 500. Prior to starting medication, my CD was between 530 to 260. 

Viral Load:

This can be defined very loosely as the amount of HIV in your blood. As mentioned before, you want to keep this number low. CD4 numbers should always be read together with Viral Load numbers to get a clearly "feel" of the chances of infection progressing to AIDS. If CD4 is above 500 and VL is low, then chances are you can still wait a while before started medication. But if CD4 is high and VL is high too then you may want to consider starting medication soon. What is considered a high VL? I would consider VL of 500 000 to 1 million to be very high. Prior to starting medication, my VL was between 60 000 to 3 000 copies. 

3) How often should I do my CD4 and VL tests?

If you have been diagnosed in Singapore in any other ways other than AFA's anonymous clinics or test sites then your records will be forward to CDC. CDC will take care of you from then on. So I think it's a trade off. I was a non-reported case because I was diagnosed at the anonymous clinic. Because of my specific field of education, I was confident in monitoring my infection progression. Below is what I did from 2002 to 2011.

Initially, when my CD4 was still high, I monitored my CD4 counts once every 6 months. When it fell to 350 and below, I monitored it once every 3 months. I did my tests in Bangkok's Anonymous Clinic in the Red Cross. The staff is friendly and speaks English. They only run CD4 tests during certain hours in the day so that is something you need to take note of. So when you take the CD4 test, take the VL test as well. The good thing is that they'll email you the results. At the same time, I was seeing a specialist at Bangkok's Bumrungrad Hospital. This hospital is equivalent to or even better than our Mt. Elizabeth or Gleneagles and at a fraction of the price too. There is no need to see this specialist everytime you go Bangkok to do your CD4 and VL test. In fact, I only saw her once every year until I started my meds. Before, I started my meds, I had to see the doc who advised me on other additional tests to do before starting medication. Basically these tests will form the baseline information for determining whether my treatment is successful. There is also a need to run genetic tests on the HIV in your body to determine its type so that the doctor can recommend a suitable combination of medication. 

Work with your doctor. Even for those who are seeing doctors in CDC, always ask them questions when you are in doubt.

4) Supplements

I truly believe that my slow disease progression is due to 2 factors:

i) optimism and love

ii) selenium

iii) milk thistle

There has been several studies about the effect of selenium on HIV infection. I have read some research papers and that convinced me to start them. I think they helped a lot. You can get selenium from GNC. Dosage is 200mg per day.

Milk thistle can be bought from GNC as well. They help to protect your liver from all the rubbish party materials you ingest (you know what I am saying here. Your alcohol and what not....)

Take note: once you start medication, you may need to stop these supplements because they may interfere with the amount of medication in your blood.

(I hope the information here will be useful for people who are newly diagnosed with HIV. The information here is only a snapshot of what worked for me. Please always consult your doctor because he/she will have a clearer picture of your overall health.)