infectious diseases
Antiretroviral Treatment of HIV Infection
Antiretroviral regimens
Combinations of 2, 3, or 4 drugs from different classes are usually necessary to fully suppress replication of wild-type HIV. The specific drugs are chosen based on the following: Anticipated adverse effects Simplicity of regimen Concomitant conditions (eg, hepatic or renal dysfunction) Other drugs being taken (to avoid drug interactions) To maximize adherence, clinicians should choose an affordable, well-tolerated regimen that uses once/day (preferable) or twice-a-day dosing. Guidelines from expert panels for initiating, selecting, switching, and interrupting therapy and special issues concerning treatment of women and children change regularly and are updated on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website,AIDSinfo. Tablets containing fixed combinations of ≥ 2 drugs are now widely used to simplify regimens and improve adherence. Tablets containing fixed combinations of one drug withcobicistat, which is a pharmacokinetic enhancer devoid of anti-HIV activity to increase the amount of medicine with HIV activity in the blood, can be used. Adverse effects with combination tablets are the same as those for the individual drugs included. 