HIV is a very active virus. From the first day of infection with HIV, large numbers of the virus are produced in your body every day.

Whether or not you have symptoms, the virus rapidly produces copies of itself that attack and destroy your immune, or CD4 (T), cells. These cells are part of the body’s natural source of protection against infection. Without treatment, your body eventually won’t have enough CD4 cells to fight HIV, or any other infection.

 

New medications can help.

 

Treatment can reduce the amount of HIV in your body, sometimes very substantially. A lot of progress has been made in the development of new medications, which include protease inhibitors, a type or “class” of anti-HIV medication that may help keep HIV under control for long periods of time. Many older anti-HIV medications (for example, reverse transcriptase inhibitors [RTIs] such as AZT, 3TC , d4T, ddl, ddC) belong to another class of drugs.

 Studies have shown that, for many people, protease inhibitors can:

  • Reduce the amount of virus in your blood, sometimes to undetectable levels. (Virus may still be present in other organ systems.)

  • Increase the number of CD4 cells; CD4 cells help fight infection.

The goal of treatment is to keep viral levels as low as possible for as long as possible

It often takes more than one anti-HIV medication to meet this goal. But whether you’re taking one or more than one anti-HIV medication, protease inhibitors and other antiretrovirals are most effective when taken exactly as your doctor says.

Leave a Reply