AIDS Crisis Control in Uganda: The Use of HAART By Dorothy J. N. ...

Downside of Anti-HIV Medication

Unfortunately, despite successful innovations and developments of existing antiretroviral drugs, challenges in the discovery of more effective and more efficient anti-HIV compounds that minimize public health concerns remain. First, anti-HIV drugs do not cure the disease but only slow the HIV replication process. Second, these drugs do not stop new HIV infection (Hanson & Hicks, 2006). Third, anti-HIV drugs are costly and inaccessible to those who may need them the most. Fourth, some of these drugs must be taken on an empty stomach and others on a full stomach, which is a contributor to poor adherence, especially for those who do not have access to a sufficient food supply (Cichocki, 2009). Fifth, once HAART treatment begins, drugs must be taken at the exact timing and in the right dosage, sometimes more than once a day as prescribed by the health care provider, which again contributes to adherence failure detailed later (Broder, 2010; Hanson & Hicks, 2006). Sixth, anti-HIV drugs may be toxic and cause numerous side effects. Side effects from anti-HIV drugs, some of which may be life threatening, include headache, dizziness, fatigue, problems with breathing, tingling, numbness, pain in the feet or hands, jaundice, aches, sensitivity to touch, liver or pancreas problems, diabetes, body fat deposits, fever, skin rash, blood in the urine, swelling of the feet, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, and loss of appetite.

To minimize the public health challenges pertaining to anti-HIV medications, scientists and drug companies continue to devise ways to improve existing drugs or to develop newer and safer drugs (Sen et al., 2008). For example, unlike the earlier phases of HIV treatment that utilized one type of drug (such as AZT), to minimize the danger of the development of drug-resistant HIV, later treatment utilizes a combination of several different drugs taken in a single dose. Unfortunately, using different types of drugs to treat HIV means taking a number of pills per dose, often more than once a day. Research reveals pill burden as an influential factor for adherence failure, a major contributor to drug resistance. To improve adherence, some drug companies developed