STEPS TO FOLLOW AFTER TESTING POSITIVE FOR HIV

If you happen to find out that you are HIV positive, then you might feel fearful, besieged, and alone. Yet it is significant to realize that HIV is a manageable disease and it can be treated. Although it is true that HIV medicines do not cure HIV totally, they do help you to live a longer and healthier life.

The most important thing to do after testing positive for HIV is to find a reliable health care clinic. You should do this even if you are not feeling sick. The care providers at the health care clinic will conduct a few tests to verify whether you are HIV positive or not.

In fact, patients infected with HIV should work closely with their care providers in order to determine when to start taking medicines and which medicines to take. Your care provider will create an efficient antiretroviral therapy routine, which is the use of HIV medicines for the treatment of HIV infection, according to your condition.

People with the HIV infection will have to take a combination of HIV medicines daily, which is also known as an HIV regimen. Note that antiretroviral therapy is not capable of curing the HIV infection, but it significantly reduces the chances of HIV transmission. This is why many professional health care providers advise HIV patients to begin antiretroviral therapy as soon as diagnosed with the disease.

You will get a better idea on when to start antiretroviral therapy through an HIV baseline evaluation. The HIV baseline evaluation contains all the details that are collected during your initial visit to the health care clinic. In addition to that, it also contains a review of your health, medical history, lab tests, and a physical examination.

An HIV baseline evaluation helps care providers in a number of ways. For instance, it helps them to determine how far the HIV infection has progressed. When that is clear, proper treatment with the use of accurate HIV medicines may prevent HIV from progressing to AIDS, which is the last stage of the HIV infection. The evaluation reports also help care providers to determine whether the patient is ready for a lifelong treatment for HIV infection with HIV medicines.

The HIV care providers will carefully assess the information gathered through the baseline evaluation, and the details will help them to decide when to begin the treatment for HIV and what medicines to use.