Types of Drugs ·
The drugs used fall into different categories. At the moment the two most commonly used classes are Nucleoside and Non-nucleoside Reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs and NNRTIs). These hit HIV relatively early in its lifecycle before it has had the chance to reproduce more HIV-infected cells. Another common class of drugs used are the Protease Inhibitors, which hit HIV later on before it can mass-produce more infected cells. There are several other different types of drugs available and in development that hit HIV at different stages in its reproductive lifecycle. They include Fusion Inhibitors, CCR5 Inhibitors, and Integrase Inhibitors.
The type of therapy suitable for one individual will not necessarily suit another, which is why many people are on very different regimes. The treatment will be individualised to you according to the results from resistance tests and any other defining pre-existing illnesses, and should be tailored to your lifestyle and your family medical history. Your doctor and probably an adherence nurse will discuss all these factors with you before you start therapy and you’ll probably want to do so with support groups or other people who’ve taken treatment too.
Most people taking ARVs see their viral load reduced to very low or undetectable levels: four out of five people achieve this on their first therapy. This doesn’t just mean they are much less likely to become ill, but may also mean that they are less infectious, although the level of HIV found in semen or in your ass is not reliably the same as in the blood. The drugs work well and improvements in these drugs over the years have made them easier to take. They do have to be taken correctly, however, and some people have problems with side effects.
Other medications:
There are other types of treatments for the consequences of HIV infection. Treatments are used for HIV-related illnesses and also to prevent these illnesses causing damage in the first place. If you have a low CD4 count when you start ARVs, you may take one or more of these too. Examples include Septrin (co-trimoxazole) for pneumonia, or acyclovir for herpes.
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