Starting HIV treatment

Most people who are taking anti-HIV drugs will take a combination, or ‘regimen’, of three drugs. There are exceptions to this, for example, pregnant women (see the section Symptoms and illnesses ), or sometimes those who have a very high viral load and need to take more than three drugs to obtain a powerful anti-HIV effect.

Before you start HIV treatment for the first time, you should have a test to see if you have been infected with a strain of HIV with resistance to certain anti-HIV drugs.

This content was checked for accuracy at the time it was written. It may have been superseded by more recent developments. NAM recommends checking whether this is the most current information when making decisions that may affect your health.