Initially, having HIV was like an automatic death sentence as there was no treatment or cure to the disease.
However, in the late 1990s, antiretroviral drugs were discovered. Basically, they are used to keep the virus in check. And now, almost everyone can have the access to the drugs.
It Treats, It Does Not Cure
ARV treatments do not cure HIV/Aids. There is still no outright cure for the disease, and it does not go away by itself.
But ARVs do slow down the damage that the virus does to the immune system and allow people to live long, productive lives like everyone else, without succumbing to the disease.
Stopping Treatment
The downside of this is that many HIV patients feel so good when they are on ARVs that they stop taking their medication, in the mistaken belief that they are cured, or that they don’t need them any more as their condition has stabilised.
Nothing could be further from the truth. They may also stop treatment if they suffer unpleasant side effects, such as headache, dizziness or nausea, though these usually pass after a few weeks.
If they don’t, the doctor will prescribe a different regimen. But it is very important if you have started on ARV treatment, to continue taking it faithfully in order for it to work.
If you are pregnant, or are a breastfeeding mother, you can safely take ARVs, and should do so to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Ask advice from your doctor or clinic about the correct medication for you.
Importance of ARVs
ARVs are drugs for life. This means that they give you back a good quality of life if you are living with HIV, but you have to take them for the rest of your life.
The purpose of ARVs is to reduce the HI virus in the blood to the point where the immune system, which is affected by HIV, can start to recover and the virus stops making copies of itself in the body.
What Happens If You Skip Taking ARVs
If you have HIV and you stop taking the ARV treatment, the following can happen:
¦ Your strain of HIV may become resistant to the ARVs, so even if you decide to take them again at a later stage, they might not work.
¦ If the drugs are stopped, or not taken at the right time each day, the HIV takes advantage of this and starts to make copies of itself again. Sometimes the copies change a little bit, and the ARV drugs will not be as effective against them.
¦ If HIV becomes drug resistant, and you accidentally pass the virus on to another person, that person will find that drugs do not work for them either.
For these reasons, it is vital not only to take your medication faithfully, but also to comply with the instructions exactly. So if you must take it twice a day, you should take it at the same time every day – say, at 7am, then again 12 hours later at 7pm.
This is to keep the drugs in your body at a constant level in order to fight the virus. The same applies if you are on one of the newer combinations of drugs that have to be taken once a day.