The Guide to Living with HIV Infection

A guide to living with HIV infection. In this new edition, Dr. John Bartlett and Ann Finkbeiner thoroughly update their discussion of the disease, from the evolving issue of when to start treatment to the new and sophisticated tests for the response to treatment, for the state of the immune system, and for HIV's resistance to various drugs. They describe these drugs' unanticipated side effects, among which are changes in peoples' appearances and increases in the lipid levels of their blood. They offer advice on adhering to the drugs' regimen - a regimen so strict and demanding that even AIDS doctors, in trials using placebos, failed it. And they explain the medical strategies by which the levels of HIV can be pushed down to an undetectable level and made to stay there. The authors emphasize the importance of receiving this good news cautiously. Though improvements in the drugs have made them easier to take, they still cost between 10,000 and 12,000 dollars per year, and no one knows whether HIV will develop resistance to them. New stresses accompany this uncertainty, and new perspectives accompany this new world.
The book offers advice both to those for whom treatment works and to those for whom it doesn't - all focused on remaining well as long as possible. It offers medical, emotional, social, financial and legal advice for people with HIV infection and for their families and friends. This new edition features discussion of: using the CD4 cell count and viral load tests to monitor response to treatment, to assess prognosis, and to indicate the state of the immune system; new tests of HIV's resistance to the various drugs against HIV; advice on when to start treatment; strategy for achieving "no detectable virus"; tricks for adhering to the strict regimen required by the anti-HIV drugs; new information on the unanticipated side effects of the anti-HIV drugs; advice to women with HIV infection who become pregnant; new information on the risks of transmitting HIV; changes in emotional perspective resulting from living with HIV infection; and new guidelines for choosing a physician.