18/02/2020
The CD4 count is a test that measures how many CD4 cells you have in your blood. These are a type of white blood cell, called T-cells, that move throughout your body to find and destroy bacteria, viruses, and other invading germs.
Your test results help your doctor know how much damage has been done to your immune system and what's likely to happen next if antiretroviral treatment (ART) is not initiated. All persons with HIV should be started on ART regardless of whether the CD4 count is high or low. The CD4 count should increase in response to effective ART.
Keeping your CD4 count up with an effective ART can hold off symptoms and complications of HIV and help you live longer. In fact, studies have found that patients who adhere to regular treatments can achieve a life span similar to persons who have not been infected with HIV.
Persons with very low CD4 counts may need to take drugs to prevent specific opportunistic infections (OIs) in addition to taking their ART. Once the CD4 count increases in response to ART, it may be possible to stop taking these OI medications.
Right after you're diagnosed, you should get a CD4 count for a "baseline measurement." That gives your doctor something to compare future test results to.
If your CD4 count keeps going down over several months despite adhering to ART, it is possible that your virus is developing resistance to the drugs that you are taking. This should be apparent from HIV viral load tests, which your doctor should be doing every few months. In this case, your doctor may want to change your ART drugs.
Source: https://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/cd4-count-what-does-it-mean #1
