﻿ Human Immunodeficiency Virus Symptoms, Causes, Treatment -
What can be done for people who have severe immunosuppression? -
OnHealth  Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV, AIDS) (cont.)
Medical Author: Medical Editor:  What can be done for people who
have severe immunosuppression?  Although one goal of antiviral
therapy is to prevent the development of immune suppression,
some individuals are already immunosuppressed when they first
seek medical care. In addition, others may progress to that
stage as a result of resistance to antiviral drugs.
Nevertheless, every effort must be made to optimize antiviral
therapy in these patients. In addition, certain specific
antibiotics should be initiated, depending on the number of CD4
cells, to prevent the complications (that is, the opportunistic
infections) that are associated with HIV immunosuppression.
Guidelines for the prevention of opportunistic infections can be
found at http://www.aidsinfo.nih.gov.  In summary, patients with
a CD4 cell count of less than 200 cell