The lower the T cell counts the harder it is for your body to fight off diseases. One method to combat this loss is early ART. ART stands for antiretroviral therapy. This therapy could potentially cause a rise in CD4 if treatment is followed after contracting the virus. The window of time for this is small after an acute infection. Figure 1: CD4 counts in early and late therapy trials
This graph details CD4 counts before and after ART. Before the initiation of ART, CD4 counts were going up in participants who started ART earlier at 4 or less months after the time of HIV infection and were going down in people who started ART later more than 4 months. The central time from the day of infection to the initiation of ART was approximately 7 months shorter in the earlier therapy group than in the later therapy group . Regardless of the difference, CD4 counts increased quicker with those starting therapy earlier, Regardless of whether therapy was initiated when the CD4 counts were higher or lower.
This data was very informative but had some limitations. The research was unable to determine if therapy could reduce clinical progression. Also the sex of the participants were predominantly male. These results could vary using more female participants. The manner of development of the disease could possibly show sex