Treatments and drugs
When HIV was first identified in the early 1980s, there were few drugs to treat the virus and the opportunistic infections associated with it. Since then, a number of medications have been developed to treat both HIV/AIDS and opportunistic infections. For many people, including children, these treatments have extended and improved their quality of life. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health estimate that since 1989, anti-retroviral medications have provided HIV-positive Americans with years of extended life. But none of these drugs can cure HIV/AIDS, many have side effects that can be severe, and most are expensive. What’s more, after 20 years on AIDS drugs, some people develop resistance to the drugs and no longer respond to treatment. Newer drugs are being researched and created to help this group of people.
Treatment guidelines
A panel of leading AIDS specialists has developed recommendations for the use of anti-retroviral medications in people with HIV. These recommendations are based on the best information available at the time they were developed. AIDSinfo, a program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, regularly refines and updates the recommendations as knowledge about HIV infection evolves.
According to current guidelines, treatment should focus on achieving the maximum suppression of symptoms for as long as possible. This aggressive approach is known as highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART). The aim of HAART is to reduce the amount of virus in your blood to very low or even nondetectable levels, although this doesn’t mean the virus is gone. This is usually accomplished with a combination of three or more drugs.
But the treatment guidelines also emphasize the importance of quality of life. Thus the goal of AIDS treatment is to find the strongest possible regimen that is also simple and has the fewest side effects. If you have HIV/AIDS, it’s important that you take an active role in treatment decisions. You and your doctor should discuss the risks and benefits of all therapies so that you can make an informed decision about what will likely be a complex and long-term treatment.