It is very important not to miss doses of your anti-HIV drugs and to take them exactly as prescribed. If you miss doses, or you do not take the drugs as prescribed, the HIV in your body is more likely to develop resistance to them, and sometimes to other drugs in the same class. This can mean the drugs stop working. Developing a routine will help with this, as can using other reminders such as the alarm on your mobile phone or a pill box with an alarm.

To help make sure that you take the right combination of anti-HIV drugs, you should have a test to see if you already have any drug resistance before you start treatment.

If you need to change HIV treatment because your viral load becomes detectable again (see The aim of treatment), then your choice of new drugs should be guided by having another resistance test at this stage to see which drugs will work for you.

Even if you have resistance to several drugs, the range of anti-HIV drugs available now means there will still be options for you.  An undetectable viral load is a realistic objective for nearly everyone, including people who have taken a lot of different treatments in the past and have drug-resistant virus.

If you are having difficulty sticking to your drug routine, discuss alternative combinations that may be easier to take with your doctor or pharmacist. There are many tips and aids which may help you take your drugs as required. For more information, speak to your healthcare team, or look at some of the resources on our Adherence topics page.

Further information can also be found in NAM’s booklet Adherence & resistance. 

Like all medications, anti-HIV drugs can cause side-effects. Quite often, these happen during the first few weeks of treatment. Your doctor can prescribe a number of drugs to help you cope with this initial period. 

Side-effects most commonly reported include headache, nausea, diarrhoea, and tiredness. You don’t have to ‘grin and bear’ side-effects – tell your doctor, especially if they are interfering with the quality of your life. There may be other drugs you can try that will suit you better.

Certain side-effects, such as rash and fever, should be reported to your doctor promptly (see entries on individual drugs for information on potentially dangerous side-effects requiring quick action).

In this booklet, we generally divide side-effects into two types:

• Common – a side-effect which occurs in at least one in a hundred patients who take this drug.
• Rare – a side-effect which occurs in fewer than one in a hundred patients who take this drug. We have included rare side-effects if they are potentially dangerous.

You will be monitored at your regular HIV clinic visits to see if any side-effects might be causing you to develop longer-term health problems.

You can find out more about side-effects and how to deal with them in NAM’s booklet Side-effects.