Does everyone who have HIV/AIDS have to take medication for the disease?

In September of 2007, my uncle and his wife were both diagnosed with the HIV virus. My uncle is the one that is claiming that his wife gave him the disease, although he is the one who did all of the cheating throughout their 15 year relationship.

He also says that his wife has the disease worser than he does and that she has to take medication for the disease and that he does not. He says that the doctor says that she is on her way to having full blown AIDS in the next 3 years and then she will die. However he says that the doctor has told him that he can live for another 30 years. Do you think that everything that he is telling us is true? I don't believe everything that he has said.

I did not put this question in the disease section because no way never answers the question whenever i post it there.

Not everyone who has HIV needs to take antiretrovirals (anti-HIV meds). It depends on the state of their HIV Disease.

Physicians usually wait until the CD4 cell count (important immune cells) drops to a certain level, or there is a large increase in viral load (amount of HIV circulating in the blood). The medications that attack HIV can be toxic in the long run so we traditionally wait until a certain point in disease progression before initiating therapy.

Whether or not his wife is 'sicker' has no bearing (necessarily) on who had the infection for longer. There are a variety of host factors that can increase or decrease the ability of HIV to cause disease.

What he seems to be saying about his wife's disease seems a bit far fetched. Maybe he is saying that because he thinks it backs up his case that she infected him. (Which it doesn't).

patients don't have to do anything, but they should. look at Magic Johnson. medicine is keeping him alive and healthy. they say it is very possible to live for 25 years with HIV nowadays with all the advances in modern medicine. a doctor would have no way of knowing how long he will live without medication. his t-cell count could be high now, but then drop.

I have a couple of friends who have been HIV+ for over 20 years and never have taken any medications. The norm is that people work are positive do take medications but personally knowing people who don't has altered my thinking. It truly depends on how a person takes care of themselves, and if there are other medical issues.

One can refuse treatment. Also HIV and other diseases can progress at different rates for different individuals. The medications help keep the disease's progression in check. Your uncle could be refusing treatment and/or it could be progressing much more aggressively in your aunt than your uncle.

Patients need some type of treatment unless they are refusing it.

Sounds like your uncle is making up his own facts about HIV/AIDS. There is really no way to tell who gave it to who. Just because your uncle's wife is more advanced in her HIV doesn't mean that she got it first. Even the part about her doctor saying that her HIV will progress to AIDS in three years is difficult to believe. People who take antiretrol viral medication are not expected to advance in the disease...that's why you take them, so your disease doesn't advance. Your uncle may not have to take meds yet because the virus is not progressing as fast in his body as it is in hers. He may also have the gene that some people have that keeps their virus from advancing. There are alot of scenerios for why she may be more advanced than she is. I think it is outrageous that your uncle is blaming anyone but himself for his disease. By the way, people who are taking their meds properly will probably not die from aids, at least not in this country or in this day and age. You uncle is a part of the problem with the stigma and the continued spread of HIV. Educate yourself. You are certainly not being correctly educated on HIV from your uncle.