HAARTHAART
HAART, (Highly Active Antiretrovial Therapy) became available in 1996 and generally involves taking multiple different classes of anti HIV medications. HIV drugs when used in combination often enhance the effectiveness of each other. There are roughly 5 classes of antiviral drugs available now and each of them help to reduce the viral load of HIV differently.
NRTI's inhibit reverse transcription in the HIV virus by incorporating themselves into the HIV virus and prevent further transcriptions. The next class is nRTI which attaches directly and preventing its functioning. PI's stop the HIV viral production by interfering with protease which completes the final assembly of HIV. II intergrase inhibitors help to stop HIV production by preventing the virus from integrating with a infected cells DNA. EI's or entry inhibitors help to prevent the virus from entering and infecting a cell.
There are also HIV medications that help directly enhance the effectiveness of other antivirals. Ritonavir is a good example and increases the levels of other PI's in the blood plasma and as a result ritonavir is often administer at a low dose for this purpose. The use of HAART has enabled HIV positive patients to live a much healthier and longer life. The use of multiple antiretrovials makes the individual drugs more effective then if you used alone and often patients can achieve a undetectable viral load.
HIV prescription drugs sometimes contain multiple types of HIV medications in order to make a therapy regime easier to follow and thus more effective. One of the draw backs to a HAART regime is the side effects of the medications can be increased and these side effects can be incredibly severe depending on the level of the dose. Patients need to adhere strictly to their HAART regime in order for the full benefits to be realized, missing even a few doses can contribute to the develop of medication resistant strains.
