There is currently no cure for HIV, but treatment with anti-HIV drugs can mean a much longer and healthier life.

The amount of illness and death in people with HIV fell dramatically after combinations of three anti-HIV drugs started to be used in the mid-1990s. There have been further improvements in HIV treatment and care since then and the latest research shows that HIV treatment means someone with HIV can live a more-or-less normal life expectancy. To put it very simply – HIV treatment works!

To get the maximum benefit from HIV treatment you need to start taking it at the right time and then take all (or nearly all) the doses of your anti-HIV drugs at the right time and in the right way.

You are most likely to get the greatest benefit from your HIV treatment if you start taking treatment before HIV has done too much damage to your immune system. It is currently recommended that you start treatment when your CD4 cell count is around 350. Starting treatment at this time has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV-related illness and of some other serious illnesses, such as heart, kidney and liver disease as well.

Once you’ve started treatment, it is important to take all the doses of your anti-HIV drugs correctly. This will mean that there is very little chance that your drugs will stop working because your HIV has become resistant to them. You can find out more about taking your HIV treatment in the NAM booklet, Adherence & resistance.

Like any other medicines, the drugs used to treat HIV can have unwanted secondary effects that are sometimes unpleasant or can even make you unwell. These are called side-effects, and can also be called adverse events or adverse reactions.

You will probably have heard about some of the side-effects that anti-HIV drugs can cause and you may even be a little frightened or worried about them.

Although it is important to acknowledge that HIV treatment can cause side-effects, it is also really important to stress that the benefits of HIV treatment by far outweigh the risk of side-effects.

And it is also important to know that the anti-HIV drugs used today cause far fewer side-effects than the drugs that were commonly used ten or even five years ago. It is equally good to know that the choice of drugs is much greater now and something can usually be done if your anti-HIV drugs do cause side-effects – in simple terms, you don’t have to ‘grin and bear’ side-effects.

This booklet provides you with information about side-effects and how to minimise the risk of them developing, how to manage them if they do occur and what to do if you develop a more serious side-effect.