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What is adherence?
Adherence means sticking to or being loyal to. Adherence to your HIV treatments regimen (HIV treatments are often called Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, HAART for short) means taking your pills in all the prescribed doses at the right time, in the right doses and in the right way.
Adherence to HAART involves the following elements:
- Taking all the medicines which make up your combination in the right quantities.
- Taking your pills at the right times.
Taking your medication at the wrong time can cause a rise in viral load and this may lead to the development of drug resistance.
- Making sure you take your medication with or without food according to instructions.
Some medicines need to be taken with food to ensure that the body absorbs them properly but others need to be taken on an empty stomach, a certain amount of time before or after you eat. It can also be important that you eat the right kind of food – the amount of fat you eat can make a difference to how well some drugs are absorbed.
- Checking for interactions with any other medication or drugs.
This includes medicines that have been prescribed to you, or bought at a chemists, supermarket or health store, including complementary or alternative therapies. Also be aware that some recreational and illegal drugs can have potentially dangerous interactions with anti-HIV medication.