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How does ART treatment work?
ART involves taking a combination of HIV medicines (called an HIV treatment regimen) every day. ART is recommended for everyone who has HIV. People with HIV should start taking HIV medicines as soon as possible. ART cannot cure HIV, but HIV medicines help people with HIV live longer, healthier lives. Although ART remains the gold standard for treatment of HIV infection, the requirement for lifelong treatment poses multiple challenges for the patient. These include stigma, an untenable pill burden, side effects, and the threat of viral resistance in the case of non-compliance. Antiretroviral drugs HIV is treated with antiretroviral medicines, which work by stopping the virus replicating in the body. This allows the immune system to repair itself and prevent further damage. A combination of HIV drugs is used because HIV can quickly adapt and become resistant. People living with HIV who take antiretroviral medications daily as prescribed and who achieve and then maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner. Time to viral suppression: Most people will achieve an undetectable viral load within 6 months of starting ART. Many will become undetectable very quickly, but it could take more time for a small portion of people just starting ART. ART begins to work within hours. This is much faster than most people realise. Viral load drops dramatically and quickly in three phases. First phase – 1 to 2 days: During the first phase, ART blocks replication in short-lived CD4 cells that are actively infected.
Is art a lifetime treatment?
Think about HIV/AIDS and its lifelong antiretroviral treatment (ART). There’s a need to get patients’ lifelong commitment as soon as they start ART or there is a risk of people interrupting treatment at some point. And if the person with HIV started ART with a CD4 count above 500, they would be expected to live to the age of 87 – a little longer than those without HIV. Being undetectable prevents HIV disease from progressing and allows people to live long and healthy lives. It also protects the health of their sex partners. Combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been highly effective in preventing HIV disease progression and restoring CD4 cell levels as well as reducing viral replication and lowering rates of HIV-associated morbidity and mortality [7–9]. When is it time to start taking HIV medicines? Treatment with HIV medicines (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) is recommended for everyone with HIV. People with HIV should start taking HIV medicines as soon as possible after HIV is diagnosed. HIV care involves a type of medication called antiretroviral therapy (ART) and regular visits with your doctor. One study estimated that costs of this care could run anywhere between $1,800 to $4,500 each month during a person’s lifetime.