HIV/AIDS; NOW TREATABLE BUT NOT CURABLE
WHAT ARE ARVs? In a healthy person, helper T cells stimulate or activate the immune system to attack infections. HIV particularly targets these helper T cells. It uses the cells to replicate itself, weakening and destroying helper T cells until the immune system is seriously compromised. Antiretroviral drugs [ARVs] disrupt this replication process. Currently, four main types of ARVs are administered. NUCLEOSIDE ANALOGUES and NON-NUCLEOSIDE ANALOGUES prevent HIV from copying itself onto a person’s DNA. PROTEASE INHIBITORS block a specific protease enzyme in infected cells from reconstructing the virus and producing more HIV. FUSION INHIBITORS aim to prevent HIV from entering cells. By suppressing HIV replication, ARVs can slow the progression from HIV infection to AIDS, dubbed the most severe clinical form of HIV disease ARV therapy is widely administered in high-income countries. Howe