Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date. I was infected with HIV a year ago. I was hospitalized with CMV for several weeks. At the time of diagnosis my CD4 [count] was 600 and viral load was 22000. I was going through seroconversion at the time. Although I'm still not sure what seroconversion means. I started taking various drugs trying to find ones that I could tolerate, none was found and I stopped taking any meds after about 2 months and have been off them for 9 months. My blood test from last week showed a viral load of 88 and CD4 count of 1400.
I'm confused, I thought HIV attacked the immune system. Why is mine getting better?? Am I curing myself ?? Is this just the quite before the storm??
"Seroconversion" refers to the time of infection and the time antibodies appear in the blood. So, from what you're saying, it sounds like all of your problems were happening within a few weeks of being first exposed to HIV.
During acute HIV infection, the virus grows very fast, and some think, probably faster than at any point in the course of the disease. For this reason, your CD4 cell numbers may fall fast and the viral load quickly rise to very high numbers.
On the other hand, your immune system does a very good job of controlling the infection. As your body fights the disease, your numbers then will show an increase in CD4 cells and decrease in viral load, even without medications. The problem is that your body can control the disease for only so long.; after a few years, without medications, the virus overcomes the immune system and opportunistic infections happen.
So, it sounds like, at least for now, your immune system is controlling the disease. With the counts that you have, you may not require medication for some time, but you should remain under a doctor's care, having your blood tested every three months to see how things are going. It may be that you tolerate drugs better in the future, when the picture is less complicated by acute illness.
There is one confusing thing in your note. While CMV is a very common disease in the general population, it usually isn't seen as an opportunistic infection for a long time, and not really until T cells fall to less than 100. It is perfectly possible that you had a new CMV infection, but I wonder a bit what this means about the actual time of your initial infection.
Sounds like things are, in general, pretty typical of HIV disease.
Let me know if I can be of any further help.
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