Antiviral therapy

Types of drugs

Antiviral therapy (also called antiretroviral therapy or antiretroviral therapy)

Antiviral drugs slow the spread of HIV in the body because they prevent the virus from making copies of itself. If HIV is unable to make copies of itself, it begins to die - but never completely! When the amount of HIV in the blood is low, the immune system can begin to repair itself.

The types of anti-HIV most common:

* Inhibitors of reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs): This family includes the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs);
* Protease inhibitors (PI).

There are now new families of drugs called entry inhibitors "and" integrase inhibitors ". Several companies manufacture these drugs, and everyone acts a little differently.

When your doctor prescribes anti-HIV drugs, you usually receive a combination of various antiviral drugs. They called it a "triple" or "HAART". Some people also call it a "cocktail", but there are people who hate this name because it gives the impression that it's fun to take these drugs --- and this is not true at all !

Often, this kind of combination is also called HAART (English acronym meaning Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy). It is a combination
at least three anti-HIV drugs different (three-drug combination therapy =). These treatments can help reduce the amount of HIV in your body.
Advantages of triple therapy

Disadvantages of combination therapy

* The triple therapy is very effective if you take it correctly;
* The combination therapy significantly reduced the viral load (ideally to a
point called "undetectable"). However, the fact that it is impossible to detect HIV in your blood does not mean there is more virus in your body. Even if the result is "undetectable," it remains a small amount of HIV in your blood and other parts of your body.



* Sometimes, drugs cause side effects that can make you very sick. If this happens, your doctor may try another combination of drugs. Sometimes people can do certain things to feel better, such as eating certain foods, taking medicines or natural exercise. [Read the section on complementary therapies for more information.]

Everyone is different, so you should try different things to feel better while you take drugs. This way, you can discover what works for you.