HIV can be treated and one of its most effective treatment methods is Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART). It is basically a bunch of antiretroviral medicines intended to keep a tab on the virus in a HIV patient’s body. There are other obvious treatments like ones that strengthen the immune system, monitoring of one’s white blood count and a simple oral medication prescription. If not checked when just HIV, it is allowed to become AIDS which is the worst stage of HIV. Once in that stage, opportunistic illnesses take their toll on one – tuberculosis and cancer. The common thread between all these health issues is that all of these things they all attack only those with low immunity.
Other than just people who have low immunity, people can get infected either by the accidental needle stick and sometimes also by bodily fluids. One must watch out for the needles where they lie. Any sexual interaction or intercourse with a HIV infectee can get the other partner infected. So as long as the treatment is started 72 hours after, the newly infected partner is safe,
Once diagnosed with HIV infection in its first stage (acute retroviral syndrome), start talking to your consultant physician about getting started in on HAART. Tests have shown that starting earlier treatment of HAART has had longer term benefits but the sooner the better. What is prescribed under HAART are Nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (tenofovir, abacavir, amivudine and emtricitabine come under this bracket), Nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors which are also called NNRTIs (inclusive of etravirine, nevirapine and faviren), Protease inhibitors (PIs) (which include saquinavir, atazanavir, indinavir, fosamprenavir, ritonavir , lopinavir/ritonavir, tipranavir, darunavir and nelfinavir), Fusion and entry inhibitors (maraviroc or enfuvirtide) and Integrase inhibitors.
The final decision to actually get on to the dosages is not as simple as the fact that you are HIV infected. Pros and cons, benefits and disadvantages have to be considered with an expert on the matter.
As far as the benefits of the system go, at such an early stage the symptoms of HIV will decrease, the progress of the disease will be checked, the virus multiplication rate will be lessened, it will maintain the immunity of the body, bring down the drug risk resistance (that with complete viral suppression) and the risk of it spreading is decreased by a small with each person that gets to enjoy these benefits.
The disadvantages are that it has many side effects – it leading to drug resistance causes it to block later treatment from working as it should, therapy needed after one is under the medication and doesn’t allow other medicinal or treatment forms to be used when the HIV disease is at its peak.
The biggest disadvantage is that even after treatment the patient continues to be a threat of being a HIV transmission agent.