If you you fail to get on treatment for HIV it will kill your immune system. Once your CD4 count get below 200 you now have AIDS and if continue down this road it's not HIV that will kill you it will be an opportunistic infection that will take you out.
Another poster mentioned that sometimes HIV will not will not completely destroy you immune system and some choose not to go on meds. However, that is still not really a good choice to make, in my opinion, My ID explained this to me like this. These types of people whos immune system are not completely destroyed by HIV have very strong immune system to begin with. Their immune system are in a constant battle with HIV each day. What most people don't realize is that your body is in a constant state of overdrive. This caused its own issues. The med pick the fight for you so that your body in not being constantly being stress fighting HIV everyday
I have been taken Stirbild for just over 2 years. I have noticed no real side effects other than when I first started taken it I had some soft stool issues. A person living with HIV today who is on treatment and has an UD viral load has the same life expectancy as someone not living with HIV.
I sure some who are negative will read this and then there are the "bug chasers" Just because there are medication to keep HIV check today it still very important to be tested on a regular basis to know your status. If someone does test positive they need to make sure that get blood labs done and monitor how the particular strain of HIV is effecting them.
Myself for example. My last negative test was 5/01/12 and was getting tested every 6 months. My next test was 01/18/13 and I tested positive. There was just over 6 month between my test. What my blood work relieved were a couple things. I strain of HIV that was resistant to rilpivirine and my first CD4 count came in at 220. The strain that I was infected with was aggressive and resistant type. My CD4 count has been slow to come back and is now just at 430. It takes long time for your body to rebuild your immune system. I have also been diagnosis with a mild form of H.A.N.D My ID tells me that with time on med I should improve,but the problem is that the meds I take are not good at getting getting HIV out of the brain. The one drug that has had the best result just happen to be rilpivirine which is the drug I have a resistance too
Then a have younger friend who failed to get tested on a regular basis and became infected by HIV. He started to have sever neurological problems and this is when they determined that he was infected with HIV. His first blood work reveled that he had a CD4 count was 6. He now has permanent neurological damage and needs to use a wheelchair to get around at the age of 25. He is also taken Stirbild and has been on treatment for about 2 years and his CD4 count is hover around 200.
Okay off my soap box. Get tested on regular basis and if you happen to become infected with HIV get on treatment as soon as possible!