| Chapter 2: | Treating HIV/AIDS |
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Chapter 2
Treating HIV/AIDS
Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy and Quality of Life
HIV is treated with antiretroviral drugs. These drugs do not cure but rather control the virus by hindering its rapid replication and hence the destruction of CD4 cells. The initial days of HIV treatment utilized one antiretroviral drug, such as AZT, and treatment was basically referred to as antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, because of the high potential to develop drug-resistant HIV, the invention of additional compounds led to what may be referred to as a medical breakthrough in 1996, when it was discovered that a more effective way to repress HIV replication required a combination of various types of anti-HIV drugs, a treatment known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Irrefutably, since its implementation HAART has led to clinical improvements in the health of those infected with HIV. Because of these anti-HIV drugs, AIDS has been downgraded from what was initially perceived as an automatic death sentence to a complex but controllable chronic illness.