ustralian AIDS Association *
A project by Ivanhoe Grammar School students Patrick Moio, Imogen Money, Thomas Gazis, Elizabeth Simcevski and Angeline Koutsoukos
*this is not a real organisation
The treatments used for the HIV virus are referred to as antiretroviral drugs. These medications were created to make it more difficult for the HIV virus to copy itself in the immune system. The goal of these drugs is to reduce the amount of HIV infected cells in blood stream. Antiretrovirals are beneficial because by slowing down the spread of HIV, the body then has more time to produce CD4 cells to assist in strengthening the immune system.
Patients do not require treatment until their CT4 cell count is below 350 cubic millilitres. Most doctors recommend beginning treatment as soon as someone's infected while others believe it is better to wait until the virus becomes serious. That is so the patient does not have to face the large amount of side effects that come with taking antiretrovirals. Some day to day side effects include nausea, diarrhoea and fatigue while other long term side effects exist such as an increase in the chance of getting diabetes, pancreas damage or liver cancer.
HIV Treatment
When a patient is consuming antiretrovirals, they must follow a set of guidelines. These guidlines include:
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Antiretroviral medication must be consumed daily and at a regular time in order to be effective.
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If the patient skips or misses dosages, their body could become resistant to the HIV treatment. This can result a HIV patient being unable to consume the combination medications they have previously been on.
The reason being is because currently there is not a large variety of antiretroviral drug combinations that can be taken, so HIV victims must make an effort to not become resistant to their current medications. It is more important and essential for children to not become resistant to some drug combinations as children's bodies are still developing and therefore cannot use many of the antiretrovirals designed for adults.
The four main types of antiretrovirals are:
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Entry inhibitors: these stop the HIV from entering the CD4 cells
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Nukes or non-nukes: which stop HIV from changing its structure when it prepares to copy
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Intergrase inhibitors: prevent the HIV virus that’s already in the CD4 cells from getting to the part of the cell where it can copy itself
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Protease inhibitors: stop the HIV infected cells from copying