|  | Conditions Treatments | HIV AIDS

What Is the Treatment for AIDS?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 37,000 people in the United States had acquired immunodeficiency virus, or AIDS, diagnoses in 2007, and more than 1 million people live with the disease. Since AIDS was diagnosed in the 1980s, doctors and researchers have developed treatments that slow the spread of dangerous opportunistic infections and extend the life of people living with AIDS diagnoses.

  1. The Goals of AIDS Treatment

    • When a person is diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus,, the virus that leads to AIDS, doctors' first priority is to use antiretroviral drugs to suppress AIDS symptoms for as long as possible. The course of therapy is called highly active anti-retroviral therapy. The goal of this therapy is to lower the amount of virus in a person's blood. Doctors often use a combination of drugs to achieve this goal, making it less likely the person's body will stop responding to one specific drug.

    Nucleoside Analogue Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs)

    • NRTIs make it difficult for the body to use the HIV protein reverse transcriptase. Because reverse transcriptase is needed for HIV to reproduce, suppressing this protein helps lower viral load, a measure of how much virus is in a person's blood. NRTIs were one of the first antiretroviral drugs developed to treat AIDS. They are used in combination with other types of antiretroviral therapies. NRTIs include zidovudine, lamivudine, didanosine, stavudine and abacavir. Side effects of NRTIs depend on the specific drug used; however, problems with blood cells, skin rashes, fevers and abdominal side effects can occur.

    Protease Inhibitors (PIs)

    • Protease inhibitors, such as saquinavir, ritonavir, indinavir, nelfinavir, and amprenavir, work similarly to NRTIs by stopping the replication of a critical HIV enzyme called protease. Like with NRTIs, doctors prescribe protease inhibitors with antiretroviral medicines so a person's body does not become too used to their effects. Side effects of these drugs include diarrhea, stomach upset and gastrointestinal problems.

    Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs)

    • NNRTIs work similarly to NRTIs by stopping the replication of reverse transcriptase, however, they do it at a later stage in the replication process. Rash is common in people using these drugs, which include nevirapine, delavirdine, efavirenz and etravirine.

    Nucleotide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NtRTIs)

    • NtRTIs interfere with HIV's ability to get genetic material into the body's cells but these drugs interfere sooner in the replication process than NRTIs do. Tenofir, the only NtRTI approved by the FDA for HIV, may be prescribed for people who become resistant to NRTIs.

    Fusion Inhibitors

    • These injectable antiretroviral drugs are primarily used for people who contract HIV strains that don't respond to traditional antiretroviral therapies. Fusion inhibitors prevent the virus membrane from fusing with healthy cells, so the virus cannot replicate in a person's body.

    Integrase Inhibitors

    • Like fusion inhibitors, integrase inhibitors are used for people for whom other antiretroviral treatments are no longer working. They interfere with the production of the HIV's integrase enzyme, which prevent HIV from inserting itself into a person's DNA.

HIV AIDS - Related Articles