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What is the treatment for HIV infection?

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Treatment to tackle the virus itself

Since the 1990s a number of drugs have been developed called antiretroviral drugs. There are several classes of these drugs which include: nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), protease inhibitors (PI), and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI). The drugs in each class work in different ways, but all work to stop the HIV from replicating itself. (These drugs are not a 'cure' and do not clear the body of HIV, but stop it from replicating very much.)

Research has shown that by taking three or more antiretroviral drugs at the same time, each attacking HIV at different points in its cycle of replication, then treatment is more effective than one or two drugs alone. So the common treatment is to use a combination of three or more drugs which include drugs from different classes. This is called HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy). Also, drug combinations reduce the risk that the virus will become resistant to any individual drug.

The aim of treatment is to reduce the 'viral load' to low levels. In most people who are treated with HAART, the viral load reduces to very low levels, and the number of CD4 T-cells rises. This means your immune system is no longer as weakened and you are not likely to develop opportunistic infections. However, it is vital to take the medication regularly and as exactly as prescribed to maintain success, and to help prevent the virus from becoming resistant to the drugs.

As with other powerful drugs, antiretroviral drugs can cause side-effects in some cases. In addition, some of these drugs react quite badly with other commonly used medications. It may be necessary to change an initial combination of drugs to a different combination because of problems with side-effects, reactions, or resistance of the virus to an initial drug. Therefore, different people with HIV can take different combinations of drugs.