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Drug Resistance/Adherence

Why you need to stick to the drill

Even with a low or undetectable viral load, HIV can still reproduce itself. Combination therapy helps to control these reproduced viruses (called copies) and keep HIV levels as low as possible. The goal of HIV treatment is to lower the level of virus in the blood to undetectable levels.

With billions of new virus copies being made every day, errors (or mutations) can develop in the new copies. These mutations can change the parts of the virus that drugs are designed to work on causing the drugs to not work effectively. This is called 'drug resistance'.

To prevent drug resistance, it's important that enough of the prescribed drugs are continuously in the bloodstream, preventing the spread of mutated copies. This is why adherence to treatment is so important. There are two key factors to this:

Regular dosing times must be followed so that drug levels are maintained at a therapeutic or working level in the body
Some drugs have guidelines about taking them with or without food, or not with certain other medications such as antacids. Make sure you know if this applies to your treatment. Ask your doctor, pharmacist, nurse or treatment officer.

Even though drug combinations are getting easier to follow, some people will still have difficulty with dosing. If you find you're missing doses, or taking them at different times, talk to your doctor about choosing a new combination that will work for you. It's better than struggling on with a combination that doesn't fit your own daily routine.

For tips on how to improve and maintain adherence speak to your doctor, nurse, pharmacist or treatments officer.