The treatment for HIV is often called anti-retro-viral drugs (ARVs). The reason for this name is because AIDS is a type of retrovirus. These drugs will have to be taken daily for the rest of a person’s life and can cause serious discomfort.

The main treatment for HIV prescribed by doctors is usually 3 or more drugs that stop the virus from spreading more. This method was started after various studies have shown that using 3 or more drugs will cause patients to live longer and the virus will progress slower.

There is no combination of drugs available that can cure AIDS, but the more the drugs reduce the amount of virus in your body, the healthier you will be.

The choice of drugs to take depends on the person and a number of factors:

• Disease stage
• Whether the person’s infection is resistant to any the drugs
• Availability and price of drugs
• The number of pills
• The side effects of the drugs
• The laboratory monitoring requirements
• Whether there are co-blister packs or fixed dose combinations available

Once ARV treatment has been started, the viral load test can track how well it is working. Viral load is the amount of HIV in a patient’s blood. If the viral load is high, T-helper cells tend to be destroyed more quickly. Antiretroviral treatment was introduced to keep the viral load as low as possible.

Blood tests measuring CD4 counts and HIV viral load are done every 3-4 months. The goal is to get the CD4 count as close to normal as possible, and to suppress the HIV amount of virus in the blood to an undetectable level.

In the developing countries, ARVs aren’t as freely available as in the 1st world countries. This results in the patients only being treated for the illness they incur because of a weakened immune system. However, treating the symptoms does not address the underlying problem of having HIV.

Other antiviral medications are being investigated. In addition, growth factors that stimulate cell growth, such as Epogen (erthythropoetin) and G-CSF are sometimes used to treat anemia and low white blood cell counts associated with AIDS.

We will go into more detail with the deferent ways of testing if enough interest is shown.