Types of Drug Treatments
Antiviral therapy (also known
as antiretroviral therapy)
Antiviral meds slow down the spread
of HIV in your body by interfering
with HIV’s ability to make copies
of itself. If HIV can’t make
copies of itself it dies off –
but never completely! When there is
not a lot of HIV in your blood, your
immune system has a chance to repair
itself.
The most common types of antiviral
meds:
- Reverse transcriptase inhibitors
(RTIs): these include nucleoside
reverse transcriptase (NRTIs) inhibitors
and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase
inhibitors (NNRTIs)
- Protease inhibitors (PIs)
There are also new classes of anti-HIV meds known as “entry inhibitors” and “integrase inhibitors”.
There are lots of drug companies that
make these drugs and they all work
a little differently.
When your doctor prescribes you HIV
meds you usually get a combination
of different antiviral meds. This
is called combination therapy or "a
drug cocktail." But lots of people
hate to call it a “cocktail”
because it makes the drugs sound like
fun --- and they’re definitely
not!
A drug combination of these meds is
often called HAART (Highly Active
Antiretroviral Therapy). HAART is
a mix of at least three different
types of antiviral meds. It can help
reduce the amount of HIV in the body.
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Pro's for
taking HAART
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Con's for
taking HAART
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| HAART makes your viral load
go very low (ideally to a point
called “undetectable”).
But, just because the virus can’t
be detected in your blood, does
not mean that there is no HIV
virus in your body. It means that
there is a low level in your blood
as well as in other places in
your body (your lymph nodes, your
sperm etc.). |
Sometimes people get too many
side effects from the meds or
side effects that can make you
feel very sick. If this happens,
your doctor can try a different
combination of meds. Sometimes
people can also do things to help
feel better like eating certain
foods, taking natural medicines
or exercising. [Check out the
Complementary Therapy section
for more information.] |
Everyone is different, so try different
ways to feel better when you are on
your meds and find out what works
best for you.
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