This booklet is a starting point for anyone who wants to know about treatments for HIV. It provides basic information about the drugs that fight HIV - known as antiretroviral drugs - and deals briefly with dosing, side-effects, drug interactions and drug resistance. 

Information contained in this booklet has been reviewed by a panel of medical experts. For full details of side-effects and drug interactions, see the Product Information Leaflets which are produced by the drug manufacturers. 

This information was correct at the time of going to press (February 2008). The booklet includes information on drugs which have been licensed in the UK or European Union.  

The booklet has been written to help you decide what questions to ask your doctor about any course of treatment you might be considering. We don’t intend for it to replace discussion with your doctor about your treatment.

acknowledgements

This edition is revised by Michael Carter.
Ninth edition, January 2008.

NAM is grateful to the funders of this booklet series:

• Department of Health
• Healthsure Charitable Trust
• NHS London HIV & GUM Commissioning Consortium

Thanks for the assistance of:

• Dr Fiona Boag
  Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London 
• Professor Janet Darbyshire
  Medical Research Council, London 
• Dr Martin Fisher
  Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals 
• Professor Frances Gotch
  Imperial College, London 
• Heather Leake Date
  Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals 
• Dr Paul Lister
  Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton 
• June Minton
  University College Hospital, London 
• Mel Snelling
  Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, Oxford
• Rosy Weston
  St Mary’s Hospital, London 
• Dr Mike Youle
  Royal Free Hospital, London 
• All pharmaceutical companies which provided product information
  Abbott Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Roche Products and Tibotec (a division of Janssen-Cilag).