Treatment: ARVs

 

With the advances in technology today, people with HIV are able to lead normal lives. As HIV is a retrovirus, the drugs and medicines used to fight it are called antiretroviral medication or ARVs. ARVS make all the difference in treating HIV. Although a patient can never get rid of the disease, without ARVs, HIV would run rampant and spread uncontrollably.

 

When patients receive ARVs, the virus' ability to reproduce is slowed or stopped. These ARVs help keep the CD4 cell count up, allowing them to fight infection instead of reproduce the HIV virus. However, the effectiveness of ARV treatment depends on how advanced a person's condition is prior to the treatment's commencement. A lot of HIV victims have to be hospitalized or undergo frequent medical visits or intravenous therapy.

 

There is also the issue of HIV's resistance to drug based treatment, the virus is getting smarter, and the treatment fails with about half of all patients. There are many kinds of HIV and they're mutating all the time. This results in many different strains of the deadly virus, some which may be completely resistant to medications or may require more complex medical treatment.

 

This means a HIV positive person is not protected from other strains of the same virus, and can't risk transmitting or catching it themselves, as medication would become completely ineffective. HIV can also live in a person without showing any symptoms for years.