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Antiviral Therapy for AIDS

There is no cure for AIDS, but there are several different drugs patients can take to extend and improve their quality of life. Antiviral therapy for AIDS involves a patient taking a combination of any of the more than 20 drugs currently available. They help keep viral levels in the body low and prevent further damage to the body. This treatment must be taken for the rest of the patient's life.

  1. Antiviral Therapy

    • Antiviral therapy, or ARV, is treating retroviral infections like HIV and AIDS with special drugs. The drugs cannot eliminate AIDS, but they can slow down the virus's development.

    Approved ARV Drugs

    • There are different classes of ARV drugs that attack the virus in different ways. The first class of drugs was developed to keep the virus material from creating DNA from RNA. Zidovudine, Didansonine, Stavudine and Lavivudine are just a few drug choices. Another class of drugs delivers the same result, but in a different way. They are commonly referred to as non-nukes or NNRTIs. The four anti-retroviral drugs in this class that have been approved are Nevirapin, Delavirdine, Efavirenz and Etravirine.

      A third class of drugs was developed to block further progress of the HIV and AIDS virus by taking the virus's raw material and cutting it so it is separated into specific pieces. Two of the 10 drugs in this category are Ritonavir and Atazanavir.

    Drug Resistance

    • As the virus advances and starts to multiply, the new copies of the original virus are mutations. These mutations are not the same as the original virus. Some mutations continue multiplying even though you keep taking the drugs. This is called drug resistance. Drug resistance can easily occur when you are taking only one type of drug. A mutation might figure out how to get past it, and the drug would no longer work for you. If you take two or three drugs at once, it makes it much harder for mutations to get around them, which is what makes antiviral therapy for AIDS so effective.

    Best Time to Start Therapy

    • There is no clear-cut answer as to the best time to begin anti-retroviral therapy for AIDS. Most doctors will first review your CD4 cell count and take note of any symptoms you've had. CD4 cells are white blood cells, also referred to as T-cells. They help the body fight infection. Antiviral therapy for AIDS usually begins when the CD4 cell count falls to around 350. You may also start treatment if you are pregnant, suffer from hepatitis B or suffer from another AIDS-related illness.

    Finding the Right Drug Combination

    • Each antiviral drug has potential side effects. Some are more serious than others. You may find that you can tolerate certain drug combinations better than others, and some combinations will produce better results than others. Every person is different. Doctors use a viral load test to see if the drugs are working. If the viral load doesn't go down, or if it goes down and then quickly comes back up, your doctor will probably suggest trying another combination of drugs.

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