Charlie Sheen 'stopped taking anti-viral HIV drugs to seek alternative therapy in Mexico'

The actor has returned to taking the drugs after his viral count increased

Sheen was diagnosed with the virus in 2011 (AP)

Charlie Sheen reportedly stopped taking his prescribed anti-retroviral HIV medication to seek an alternative “cure” in Mexico.

Speaking on The Dr Oz programme on Tuesday, Sheen, who was diagnosed with HIV in 2011, admitted to not taking his medication for a week.

“Am I risking my life? Sure. So what? I was born dead. That part of it doesn’t phase me at all,” Sheen was quoted as saying by People.

He reportedly sought treatment from a physician called Dr Sam Chachoua. It is not known what Sheen’s alternative medicine entailed.

Dr Chachoua told Dr Oz on the phone that Sheen was “the first person in history without antiviral therapy” to be cured of the virus, and was so confident in his methods that he “drew some blood from him [Sheen] and injected myself with it”.

Since receiving the treatment, the Two and a Half Men actor said he does not recommend the alternative treatment and was just presenting himself as “a type of guinea pig” to trial it.

His viral count was revealed to be higher than before due to coming off the anti-viral medicine and he has now resumed his antiretroviral treatment for HIV.

“I’m a little off my game because right before I walked out here, I got some results I was disappointed about. I had been non-detectable and checking the blood every week and then found out the numbers are back up,” he said.

Sheen, 50, previously said his viral count was “undetectable” when he disclosed his illness in an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show following weeks of tabloid speculative as to who the unidentified ‘A-list actor’ living with HIV was.

Antiretroviral drugs work by stopping the virus replicating itself in the body and encouraging the immune system to repair itself. Most people who are on the treatment take it for the rest of their life, and not taking them mean the treatment could fail.

If someone is taking the HIV treatment, the level of the virus in the blood is very low and renders it more unlikely to be passed on.

HIV is a virus which attacks the immune system weakening the ability to fight illness. It is passed on through blood, semen, vaginal and anal fluids and breast milk.

Sheen told Dr Oz he would re-start the drugs on the plane back to LA from New York, which Sheen’s manager Mark Burg confirmed he did to People in a statement.

“Charlie is back on his meds. He tried a cure from a doctor in Mexico but the minute the numbers went up, he started taking his medicine. He said he would start on the plane on the way home and that is exactly what he did.”