Question:

My 13 year old step daughter has been diagnosed with AIDS.

The past couple of months my stepdaughter had been sick we kept taking to the doctor 4 weeks in a row and all they said was its her asthma, give her this medication. Well a couple days later she was back to where we were. My Husband insisted she be admitted to the hospital after the 4 week of going through this. When the doctors saw her chest x-ray they were horrified to see PCP bad. Thats also when we learned she had AIDS (final Stage). (Her Bio-Mother died in August 03 of AIDS.) 3 weeks later she was released from the hospital. She is now back in the hospital with Shingles and her Face is HUGE. Her TCell count is 17 and viral load is 325.

Is this normal for AIDS paitents or is she further along than we thought? Honestly, is there any hope of a normal life for her? Please tell me the truth, everyone else tip- toes around the question.

Do you think we will constantly be going back and forth to the hospital?
Thank you for your time.

Answer provided by:

Peter Shalit, M.D.
Internal Medicine

It sounds like your stepdaughter has an advanced case of AIDS. Her immune function is very low, judging from the T-cell (CD4) count. This means that she is susceptible to severe infections like the ones she has been experiencing. However if she can begin treatment with drugs to control HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), she has a good chance of recovering and having a normal life. There are many people who were as sick as your stepdaughter when they discovered they had HIV/AIDS, and now they have returned to good health once the virus has been treated. I would still be guarded about your stepdaughter's prognosis for the next few months, because she has been very sick and continues to be at risk for more problems in the near future. However, if she begins antiviral treatment and makes it through the next few months, the odds are high that she will do very well.

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