Taking HIV treatment can mean a longer, healthier life

Even though there’s no cure for HIV, doctors are now hopeful that you can live a normal length of time if you take a combination of anti-HIV drugs.

You will get the best HIV care at a specialist NHS HIV clinic

HIV doctors at specialist clinics will regularly check your health to:

• see how HIV is affecting your immune system and
• explain what treatment you need to take.

If you are entitled to free NHS care, your HIV treatment and care, including your HIV medicines, will be free.

The goal of HIV treatment is an ‘undetectable viral load’ – extremely low levels of HIV in the blood

This means that your immune system can stay strong and fight infections and HIV can’t become resistant to your drugs.

HIV treatment includes three (and sometimes more) different drugs

This helps reduce the risk of HIV becoming resistant to the drugs you are taking.

The best time to start HIV treatment isn’t known

However, you should have treatment if:

• you are ill because of HIV or
• your immune system is weakened because of HIV.

 

Guidelines set out the type of HIV treatment you should receive

There are special guidelines for treating certain groups of people, for example, pregnant women and people who have taken a lot of HIV drugs before.

You need to take all your anti-HIV drugs as instructed

This means:

• taking all your doses of medicine at the right time
• taking your medicine in the right way (for example, with or without food) and
• making sure that you don’t take other medicines or drugs that affect your treatment.

 

If you don’t take your medicine properly, there’s a risk that the drugs you are taking won’t work and similar drugs you take in future might not work.

HIV treatment can help prevent a mother passing on HIV to her baby

Using HIV treatment during pregnancy can help to dramatically reduce the risk of a pregnant women passing HIV on to her unborn child.

HIV treatment is there to protect and improve your health

However, anti-HIV drugs can cause side-effects. If you have side-effects, make sure that you tell your doctor as there’s a good chance you’ll be able to do something about them.

You can still pass on HIV to somebody else, even if you are taking HIV treatment

Condoms effectively prevent you from passing on HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. And you can get clean needles if you inject drugs – never share needles or other injecting equipment.