Other Ways to Stay Healthy

This content is from
page 296 of Where Women Have No Doctor

When a person has HIV, their immune system is always somewhat weaker, making illness more likely. It may get increasingly weaker with each illness. Without ART, this continues until the person’s body is too weak to survive.

Preventing infections and illness with ART and other medicines is the best way to support the immune system. It is also important to treat any infections to keep them from getting worse or spreading. This way a person with HIV can stay as healthy as possible.

Using medicines to prevent infections

Along with your ART medicines, regular use of the antibiotic cotrimoxazole helps prevent pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, and other infections. You should start taking it if you have problems with weight loss, sores, or cracks around your lips, itching rashes, shingles, mouth ulcers, or frequent colds, or if you live where malaria or severe bacterial infections are common.

Take cotrimoxazole 960 mg by mouth daily with plenty of water (2 tablets of 480 mg: 80 mg trimethoprim and 400 mg sulfamethoxazole). If possible, take it every day whether you feel sick or not.

IMPORTANT! Allergic reactions to cotrimoxazole are more common if someone has advanced HIV disease. Stop taking it if you get a skin rash or another sign of drug allergy.

Some people have problems with yeast infections of the vagina when they take antibiotics. Eating yogurt or sour milk or sitting in a pan of warm clean water can help. See more information on yeast infections of the vagina; for yeast of the skin; and for yeast of the mouth.

In some countries, people with HIV can take medicine called isoniazid daily to prevent tuberculosis (TB). See Chapter 25 for information about TB and information about isoniazid.

Mental Health

More Information

counseling
living positively with HIV

HIV infection can be emotionally stressful. People living with HIV may feel afraid and tense (anxiety), very sad, or without energy or pleasure in life (depression). Anxiety and depression also weaken the body, making it easier to get sick or miss doses of ART.

Reach out to friends or a support group for help—it is difficult to come out of depression or worry on your own. A health worker can help you tell the difference between signs of illness that are caused by physical problems and signs that may be caused by anxiety or depression. Knowing the cause of a problem may make it easier to treat. It is possible to overcome feelings of anxiety and depression. Also see the Mental Health chapter.

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This page was updated:13 Nov 2023

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