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How Long Before HIV Becomes AIDS?

The amount of time between the day a person is diagnosed with HIV to when he may discover he has progressed into AIDS can vary greatly. There is no real model to go by when answering this question; the amount of time that AIDS progression takes depends on a number of different factors.

  1. Time of Diagnosis

    • How long it takes to progress into AIDS first depends on how long a patient was infected before she was diagnosed. Earlier diagnosis means that a person can be on medicine early, which will help fight opportunistic infections and the low CD4 counts that define AIDS.

    Co-Infections

    • A common STD that plagues many HIV patients is hepatitis (B or C), though other STDs or infections may be present as well. Co-infected patients may progress into AIDS more quickly.

    Non-Progression

    • Some people act essentially as carriers of the virus while seeming to be unaffected even without treatment. It may be years or even decades before they become ill at all, let alone begin progressing into AIDS.

    Treatment Adherence

    • Adhering properly to an HIV treatment regimen gives the virus less of chance to mutate and replicate, taking it longer for AIDS to develop.

    Other Illness

    • Sometimes how long a person can live with HIV before it becomes AIDS depends on how healthy he stays overall. This includes diet, exercise and how well he takes care of other illnesses, no matter how slight. Even having a common cold can make CD4 immune cell counts fall, and once counts begin to fall, they can be hard to bring back up.

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