Understanding treatment failure

When considering a regimen change, it is important to examine the reasons for treatment failure to prevent the same problems from occurring again.

Treatment failure can come in the form of virological failure (uncontrolled viral load), immunological failure (CD4 cell count decline), and clinical progression (occurrence of an AIDS-related illness or event after three months or more on antiretroviral therapy). Generally, treatment failure occurs in that order, but not in everyone. 

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 It may have been superseded by more recent developments.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.