Editorial - treatment for life, it's no reason to be depressed
Once you start taking anti-HIV therapy, you can never stop - that's the conclusion of one HIV researcher after looking at the results of the latest treatment interruption study.
Don't be too depressed. Yes, HIV therapy can cause side-effects, and remembering to take pills can be a bother. But you don't have to put up with side-effects - if you find your treatment intolerable, then tell your doctor. The chances are that there will be alternative drugs available that don't cause side-effects you are experiencing. What's more, it's now possible to take HIV treatment just once a day, and treatment consisting of just one pill, once a day may well be available in the UK by the summer.
And never say never - enormous leaps have been made in HIV treatment over the past twenty years and I'm sure that even better, more tolerable and easier to take drugs will become available in the years to come.
Anti-HIV therapy
HIV and cancer
Thanks to potent anti-HIV therapy, new cases of the AIDS-defining cancers Kaposi’s sarcoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are rare, and the outlook for people who develop these illnesses is much improved.
Cervical cancer is also an AIDS-defining cancer, and anal cancer, although it is not considered an AIDS-defining condition, occurs with much greater frequency in both HIV-positive men and women than the general population.
Some strains of human papilloma virus (HPV) can cause cell changes in the cervix and anus that can lead to cancer. Anti-HIV therapy does not work directly against HPV (although other treatments are available), and there has been a lot of debate about whether the strengthening of the immune system that potent anti-HIV therapy brings about, means that the HIV-positive people are now less likely to experience cancerous or pre-cancerous cell changes in their anus or cervix.
A French study has found that HIV-positive women who take potent anti-HIV treatment are just as likely to develop pre-cancerous cell changes in their cervix as as HIV-positive women not on therapy.
It is recommended that HIV-positive women have regular PAP smear tests to check for cervical abnormalities. It is possible to effectively treat pre-cancerous cell changes, and these treatments work very well in HIV-positive women. The value of anal PAP smears is controversial.