Side Effects of Haart Treatment for AIDS

HAART stands for highly active anti-retroviral therapy. This treatment for HIV involves suppressing the virus for a long period of time to prevent it from causing AIDS. This treatment aims to keep the levels of HIV in the blood so low that they do not cause any illnesses. The goal is to reduce these virus levels to the point that they can't be detected in the blood, although the person still technically has HIV. While these drugs work well, the drawback is that their side effects can be as bad as AIDS itself.

NRTI Side Effects

• Nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors or NRTI have side effects that include fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, fever, and abdominal pain.

Protease Inhibitors

• Side effects of protease inhibitors are diarrhea, nausea, loss of total body fat, and accumulation of body fat in one place such as the back or stomach.

NNRTI Side Effects

• Mood disorders are the major side effects of non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors or NNRTI.

NtRTI Side Effects

• The side effects of nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors or NtRTI are gas, vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea. Possible long-term side effects are liver damage that is potentially fatal.

Integrase Inhibitor Side Effects

• Integrase inhibitor side effects include diarrhea, headache, and fever.