HIV AIDS Traditional Treatment

HIV Treatment

In the 1980s when HIV was first identified, there were very few treatments available for AIDS, the deadly disease caused by the HIV virus and those who were infected had a very grim prognosis. While there is still no cure for HIV/AIDS, today HIV is a very treatable disease that no longer carries the hopeless prognosis that it once had. In fact, a recent government study found that the HIV death rate dropped 10 percent, the biggest decline in the past decade. While HIV/AIDS is still a devastating disease, a class of drugs known as retrovirals work to suppress the virus from duplicating so that it cannot spread and further harm the body’s immune system. Currently, there are over 20 different kinds of retrovirals that offer an effective way for controlling and managing the virus. The distinct classes of antiretrovirals are classified according to the phase of the virus replication process that the drug inhibits.

Here is the list of 28 FDA-approved retrovirals: Protease Inhibitors (PIs) Amprenavir (Agenerase) Tipranavir (Aptivus) Indinavir (Crixivan) Saquinavir mesylate (Invirase) Lopinavir and ritonavir (Kaletra) Fosamprenavir Calcium (Lexiva) Ritonavir (Norvir) Darunavir (Prezista) Atazanavir sulfate (Reyataz) Nelfinavir mesylate (Viracept) Fusion Inhibitors Enfuvirtide (Fuzeon) Entry Inhibitors Maraviroc (Selzentry) Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs) Lamivudine and zidovudine (Combivir) Emtricitabine (Emtriva) Lamivudine (Epivir) Abacavir and lamivudine (Epzicom) Zalcitabine and dideoxycytidine (Hivid) Zidovudine (ZDV), azidothymidine (AZT) (Retrovir) Abacavir, zidovudine, and lamivudine (Trizivir) Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine (Truvada) Enteric coated didanosine (Videx EC) Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (Viread) Stavudine (Zerit) Abacavir sulfate (Ziagen) Nonnucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs) Etravirine (Intelence) Delavirdine (Rescriptor) Efavirenz (Sustiva) Nevirapine (Viramune)

HIV treatment is very complicated whereby the infected individual must develop a customized treatment plan that usually combines a series or cocktail of different medications, all acting on certain areas of the virus in order to prevent its spread and consequent infections.