Shortly following the discovery of HIV in 1981, a variety of therapies using one drug were introduced to people living with HIV. This included the drug AZT.
Despite initial success, these “monotherapies” proved to be ineffective in slowing the progression of the virus.
This failure was due to HIV’s ability to quickly develop resistance to these single-drug treatments. In other words, HIV mutated (changed) into a form that no longer responded to the individual drugs.
In 1995, a combination drug treatment known as the “AIDS cocktail” was introduced. This type of therapy is now known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). It’s also called combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) or simply antiretroviral therapy (ART).
Regardless of its name, HAART has led to dramatic improvements in people who have used it. People have experienced decreased viral loads (the amount of HIV in their body) and increased counts of CD4 cells (immune cells that are destroyed by HIV).
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , people who take antiretroviral therapy as prescribed and maintain an undetectable viral load have “effectively no risk” of transmitting HIV to others.
In addition, life expectancies have become much closer to typical life expectancies. One of the main reasons for HAART’s success is that it helps prevent resistance to any single drug used.
Read on to learn more about the life-changing treatment called HAART.
MooseLips_SinkShips on December 9th, 2019 at 15:56 UTC »
"Doctor, we've tried everything! Nothing works"
"But have you tried everything... At once"
:O
sonia72quebec on December 9th, 2019 at 14:38 UTC »
I remember how some investors bought AIDS patients life insurance for half their value and were making a profit on people’s early death. Then, with the cocktail, they stopped dying and the investors got mad.
(For people who don't believe me.)
pineapple_bandit on December 9th, 2019 at 12:53 UTC »
I lived in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco from 1996-1998. At the time it was the gayest neighborhood in SF. I'll never forget filling a prescription at the walgreens and seeing rows and rows of full sized brown paper grocery bags lined up behind the pharmacy counter with a stack of prescription instructions stapled to each bag. I asked one day and was told each bag contained the monthly meds for a single AIDS patient. Those cocktails meant that a patient was taking handfuls of drugs several times a day. Made me very sad to see those bags but hopeful that these people would live and it would be cured some day.