How long can you live after being infected with HIV? Is there still hope for life? Please believe in science!

On June 5, 1981, the US CDC reported the world's first case of AIDS. By the end of 2020, more than 80 million people worldwide had been infected with HIV, and more than 40 million people had died. (Different statistical methods have different data and results, and the data I give are estimates)

When AIDS was first discovered, there were no drugs or treatments, so most infected people died soon after being diagnosed. This left people with the impression that once diagnosed with HIV, life was about to end. Even now, many people who have been diagnosed with HIV come to consult me, asking if they will die soon and how long they can live.

There are three ways of transmission of AIDS: sexual transmission, blood transmission, and mother-to-child transmission. Its transmission requires close contact. When a person is diagnosed with HIV, if confidentiality measures are not taken, he can basically be declared "socially dead." Because the public believes that the reasons for HIV infection are basically undisciplined private life or drug abuse, these behaviors are despised by the public. So is there still hope for the life of people infected with HIV?

How long can you live after being infected with HIV? Many people infected with HIV are eager to know how long they can live. At present, there is no drug or method that can completely cure AIDS. AIDS will accompany the infected person for life.

Before 1987, there was no drug to treat AIDS, and only symptomatic supportive treatment could be given to AIDS patients after they became ill. In 1987, the first anti-AIDS drug, zidovudine, was introduced, and AIDS could be treated with drugs. Subsequently, researchers conducted a large number of studies based on previous research, and more and more therapeutic drugs were tested, but they were all single-drug. However, the good times did not last long, and more and more HIV-infected people developed drug resistance.

In 1996, Chinese-American scientist Professor David Ho proposed the famous "cocktail therapy", since then the drug resistance rate of HIV has dropped significantly and the life expectancy of HIV-infected people has been greatly extended.

Because AIDS has a huge impact on human civilization, governments of various countries and nature foundations have invested heavily in the research and development of AIDS treatment drugs. More and more anti-HIV drugs have come on the market, and there are more and more AIDS treatment options, and the AIDS mortality rate has dropped significantly.

In 2016, at the World AIDS Conference held by the United Nations AIDS Program (UNAIDS), experts and scholars attending the conference reached a consensus that after being infected with HIV, as long as antiviral drugs are taken regularly according to doctor's advice, HIV will hardly affect the life expectancy of the infected person. In other words, the life expectancy of infected and uninfected people is almost the same.

Many HIV-infected people do not believe this consensus, but it is true now. As long as you treat it well, AIDS will hardly have any impact on your life. I have a patient whose CD4T+ lymphocyte value was 0 when he was diagnosed. He was very optimistic and positive. Through treatment, his CD4T+ lymphocyte value is now within the normal range, and all indicators are normal. So if you are unfortunately diagnosed with HIV, please be optimistic and actively treat it. Whether you believe it or not, this is science!

The famous American NBA star "Magic" Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 and is still alive; my country's Meng Lin was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 and is still living a good life.

Is there still hope for people infected with HIV? I once discussed with some HIV-infected people and those who are afraid of AIDS, if they had to choose between AIDS and cancer, which one would they choose? Many people chose cancer! This answer really shows how much people fear AIDS. But do you know that AIDS has almost no effect on life expectancy after treatment, while the five-year survival rate of cancer is very low! Most cancer patients die within five years!

I asked them why they chose cancer, and they almost all answered: If it was cancer, they could die honorably, but if it was AIDS, their entire life would be ruined, and there would be no hope at all, so it would be better to just die!

Is there really no hope after being infected with HIV? No, there is hope, and I think there is a lot of hope! Whether there is hope or not depends on your own choice! Meng Lin, mentioned above, established the AIDS prevention and treatment social organization "Love Ark" after he was diagnosed with HIV, to promote AIDS prevention and treatment knowledge and help more people avoid HIV infection. This is a manifestation of the value of life! If you are infected with HIV, you can also show your value!

If you are infected with HIV, you must face it with the right attitude. If you cannot change the outcome, you should accept it calmly. Adjust your mindset, follow the doctor's advice, actively seek treatment, have a healthy routine, have regular physical examinations, and do appropriate physical exercise. Your life will be as wonderful as that of an uninfected person!

Although AIDS is not as scary as before, we still have to pay attention to prevention. In 2020, there were 62,167 new confirmed cases of HIV infection and 18,819 deaths nationwide. Both the number of confirmed cases and deaths decreased compared with 2019. This is the first time that there has been a decrease compared with the previous year.

A large number of facts and data prove that AIDS can be prevented and controlled. Although AIDS can be treated with drugs and the treatment will hardly affect the lives of infected people, the rigor of taking drugs will still bring many inconveniences to infected people, so we still have to pay attention to the prevention of AIDS.

The prevention measures for AIDS are shown in the figure below! Please pay attention to AIDS and prevent it!

In conclusion, there are many choices in life, some of which are uncontrollable, and some of which are controllable. Whether or not you are infected with HIV is completely controlled by yourself, so you should pay attention to AIDS and prevent it! If you are unfortunately infected with HIV, I hope you will be full of hope and confidence in life, don't give up on yourself, follow the doctor's advice, have regular physical examinations, and actively exercise, and you will still have a wonderful life; AIDS is no longer a terminal illness, but a preventable and curable chronic disease. As long as you actively treat it after being infected with HIV, the length of your life is almost the same as that of an uninfected person. I hope you can believe in science and treat it correctly.

If you have any questions about AIDS or hepatitis B, please follow me and send me a private message for consultation!