How treatment works

By Roger Pebody
14 July 2025
4 mins

Easy-to-read and illustrated information on how different types of anti-HIV drugs work against HIV.

HIV treatment helps you stay well by reducing the amount of HIV in your body. All anti-HIV drugs try to prevent HIV infecting new cells, but different types of drugs do this in different ways. A combination of two different types of drugs provides a powerful attack on HIV.

The aim of treatment is an ‘undetectable viral load’ – very low levels of HIV in the blood.

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How treatment works

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How treatment works

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Roger Pebody

Commissioning Editor

Roger joined aidsmap in 2008 and was Managing Editor from 2018 to 2024. As a freelancer, he now edits aidsmap’s news and conference coverage, as well as working on updates to About HIV pages. He is also a contributing science editor for TheBodyPro, a freelance journalist for The Lancet HIV, and a medical writer helping researchers prepare articles for peer-reviewed journals. He began working on HIV at Gay Men Fighting AIDS in the mid-1990s.