In the early 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic began, AIDS patients rarely lived longer than a few years. But today, people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, have longer and healthier lives. The main reason is that there are many effective medicines to fight the infection.
Most medicines fall into one of the following three categories
- Reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors. These medicines interfere with a critical step during the HIV life cycle and keep the virus from reproducing.
- Protease inhibitors. These medicines interfere with a protein that HIV uses to produce infectious viral particles.
- Fusion inhibitors. These medicines block the virus from entering the body's cells.
While these medicines help people with HIV, they are not perfect. They do not cure HIV infection or AIDS. People with HIV infection still have the virus in their bodies, so even when they are taking medicines they can transmit HIV to others through unprotected sex and needle sharing.
What should I know about my HIV medicines?
Combinations of medicines that are used to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are called ART. This stands for "antiretroviral therapy" (say: an-tee-ret-ro-vi-rull). If you have HIV, ART will not cure you. However, it can help you fight off infections and live a longer life.
HIV attacks your body by entering cells and copying itself. As the amount of virus in your body (called the viral load) increases, you get sick. ART helps you feel better by keeping your viral load low. The lower your viral load is, the longer you can stay healthy. The goal of therapy is to get your viral load so low that it can't be measured by blood tests. But it is important to remember that even when your viral load is this low, you can still infect other people with HIV.
Why is it so important to take my medicine correctly?
ART can work very well if you take the medicines the right way. But if you don't take your medicines just the way your doctor tells you to, your HIV might not be exposed to enough medicine to control it. If this happens, the HIV becomes resistant, and the medicines stop working. Resistance to ART medicines can be permanent.
There are not many kinds of medicine that can be used to treat HIV. So if your HIV becomes resistant, you can run out of ways to treat it.
Do I need to take all of my medicine?
People on ART need to take many pills at different times of the day. It can be hard to remember, but you must take at least 95 percent of your pills. For example, if your doctor has prescribed 15 pills per day, you can't miss more than 5 pills per week.
Some people put their pills in a daily pillbox and use alarms to remind themselves to take their medicines.
Do I have to eat or drink something when I take my medicine?
Some medicines must be taken with food. Others must be taken on an empty stomach. Check with your doctor and pharmacist about your particular medicines.
Some people who take indinavir (brand name: Crixivan) get kidney stones. If your doctor wants you to take this medicine, you should drink at least 10 cups of water per day to help prevent kidney stones.
Grapefruit juice can affect the way some medicines work. Ask your doctor if it's OK for you to drink it. Also, ask your doctor if it's safe for you to have alcoholic drinks.
