My cd4 counts have always been below 300 (usually below 200) and was diagnosed with AIDS when I found out I was HIV+ because my cd4 count was at 64. Never had a "serious" illness just many minor ones...sort of like a fly that keeps flying around (irritating at times) . My viral load cleared up right away but my cd4 count never has fully recovered. Still have the AIDS diagnosis which I assume will be with me forever; although I am asymptomatic at present.

Here is my experience. When I was diagnosised I had 0 T's. This was in 1994, I was not expected to live through 1995. This was before they had the test that gives you your viral load. Now my T's are in the 600 to 900 range and my viral load is undetectable. I am still considered full blown AIDS, I guess, which is good for SSDI or I would loose my coverage for my doctors. Down side is that I am limited in the amount of money that I can make before I loose my SSDI. I have another 3 years until I will be old enough that my SSDI will move to SS.
I hope that helps.

This is my first post here but this topic is me. 2/2012 I was diagnosed with 90 CD4 cells and 1.1 million VL. Though I didn't realize it at the time the worse news was that at some time in the past I'd had encephalopathy which caused brain damage. The immediate symptom of that was that I could not walk. My ability to balance was gone.

It took two years for my CD4 count to top 200, the GD AIDS line as I called it. It was 27 months before VL was undetectable. My research told me both counts should have been at those points within 6 months. I just kept on plugging.

For most of these 6 years I have been pissed that I'll always carry the AIDS label but now I'm proud of it. It means that I've beaten it (and it makes me a lot of money - 60K a year in meds + extras). Thank God AIDS is a popular disease.

Hello. My cd4 was 5 and now I am at 148 it takes a while but you are out of the clear as long as you take your meds and stay stress free.

You do have a AIDS diagnosis but it's not the final stages. I have friends that have had as low as 2 cd4 and today with there meds they're cd4 cells are as high as 800. You are susceptible to many conditions but we all are no matter what our cd4 cells are. For me I deal with the disease or virus by joking about it. Don't over think the disease just enjoy life and if something comes up in regards to health just deal with it. I hope that helped answer your question take care my friend