A long-acting injectable HIV treatment option is available for people who have an undetectable viral load. It is given every other month or monthly by a health care provider as two injections, after you take about a month of once-daily starter pills. Your every other month regimen begins after two consecutive months of injections.
Full Answer
What are the treatment options for HIV?
Treatment with HIV medicines (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) is recommended for everyone with HIV. People with HIV should start taking HIV medicines as soon as possible after HIV is diagnosed. A main goal of HIV treatment is to reduce a person’s viral load to an undetectable level.
Why should you take your HIV medication every day?
Taking Your HIV Medication Every Day. Why Should You Take Your HIV Medication Every Day? Taking your HIV medication daily as prescribed provides many benefits. Among them, it: Allows the HIV medication to reduce the amount of HIV in your body (also called the viral load) to a very low level.
When should you develop a treatment plan for HIV?
Working with your health care provider to develop a treatment plan will help you learn more about HIV and manage it effectively. When Should You Start HIV Treatment? Treatment guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommend that a person living with HIV begin ART as soon as possible after diagnosis.
How long does it take to cure HIV?
1 HIV medicine is called antiretroviral therapy (ART). 2 There is no effective cure for HIV. But with proper medical care, you can control HIV. 3 Most people can get the virus under control within six months. 4 Taking HIV medicine does not prevent transmission of other sexually transmitted diseases.
How long does treatment for HIV last?
This means that most people will need to be on treatment for 7 to 12 months to have a durably undetectable viral load. It is essential to take every pill every day to maintain durably undetectable status.
How many treatments are there for HIV AIDS?
Are there different types of HIV treatment? There are two types of HIV treatment: pills and shots. Pills are recommended for people who are just starting HIV treatment. There are many FDA-approved single pill and combination medicines available.
Does HIV require lifelong treatment?
HIV medicines also reduce the risk of HIV transmission. Because HIV requires lifelong treatment, it is important for people with HIV to regularly visit their health care provider. Ongoing medical care includes monitoring to make sure a person's HIV treatment regimen is keeping the virus under control.
What is HIV treatment?
HIV treatment (antiretroviral therapy or ART) involves taking medicine as prescribed by a health care provider. HIV treatment reduces the amount of...
When should I start HIV treatment?
Start HIV treatment as soon as possible after diagnosis. All people with HIV should take HIV treatment, no matter how long they’ve had HIV or how h...
What if I delay HIV treatment?
If you delay treatment, HIV will continue to harm your immune system. Delaying treatment will put you at higher risk for transmitting HIV to your p...
Are there different types of HIV treatment?
There are two types of HIV treatment: pills and shots. Pills are recommended for people who are just starting HIV treatment. There are many FDA-app...
What are HIV treatment shots?
HIV treatment shots are long-acting injections used to treat people with HIV. The shots are given by your health care provider and require routine...
Can I switch my HIV treatment from pills to shots?
Talk to your health care provider about changing your HIV treatment plan. Shots may be right for you if you are an adult with HIV who has an undete...
What are the benefits of taking my HIV treatment as prescribed?
HIV treatment reduces the amount of HIV in the blood (viral load). Taking your HIV medicine as prescribed will help keep your viral load low. HIV t...
Does HIV treatment cause side effects?
HIV treatment can cause side effects in some people. However, not everyone experiences side effects. The most common side effects are Nausea and vo...
What should I do if I’m thinking about having a baby?
Let your health care provider know if you or your partner is pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant. They will determine the right type of HIV...
Can I take birth control while on HIV treatment?
You can use any method of birth control to prevent pregnancy. However, some HIV treatment may make hormone-based birth control less effective. Talk...
What is the treatment for HIV?
HIV treatment involves taking medicines that slow the progression of the virus in your body. HIV is a type of virus called a retrovirus, and the combination of drugs used to treat it is called antiretroviral therapy (ART). ART is recommended for all people living with HIV, regardless of how long they’ve had the virus or how healthy they are.
Why do you prescribe HIV?
Your health care provider may prescribe medicines to prevent certain infections. HIV treatment is most likely to be successful when you know what to expect and are committed to taking your medicines exactly as prescribed.
What is drug resistance in HIV?
What Is HIV Drug Resistance? Drug resistance can be a cause of treatment failure for people living with HIV. As HIV multiplies in the body, it sometimes mutates (changes form) and produces variations of itself. Variations of HIV that develop while a person is taking ART can lead to drug-resistant strains of HIV.
How long do HIV side effects last?
Some side effects can occur once you start a medicine and may only last a few days or weeks.
How soon can you start ART for HIV?
Treatment guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommend that a person living with HIV begin ART as soon as possible after diagnosis. Starting ART slows the progression of HIV and can keep you healthy for many years.
Is HIV treatment a prevention?
There is also a major prevention benefit. People living with HIV who take HIV medication daily as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative partners. This is called treatment as prevention.
Can HIV be drug resistant?
A person can initially be infected with drug-resistant HIV or develop drug-resistant HIV after starting HIV medicines. Drug-resistant HIV also can spread from person to person. Drug-resistance testing identifies which, if any, HIV medicines won’t be effective against your specific strain of HIV.
Why is it important to take HIV medication?
Taking your HIV medication daily is also important because skipping doses makes it easier for HIV to change form, causing your medication to stop working. This is called drug resistance. HIV can become resistant to your medication and to similar medications that you have not yet taken.
How to stay healthy with HIV?
Getting and keeping an undetectable viral load is the best thing you can do to stay healthy. Helps protect your partners. If you take HIV medication every day, exactly as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load, you have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through sex.
What is it called when HIV is low?
Allows the HIV medication to reduce the amount of HIV in your body (also called the viral load) to a very low level. This is called viral suppression. If the viral load is so low that it doesn’t show up in a standard lab test, this is called having an undetectable viral load.
How does HIV medication work?
Taking your HIV medication daily as prescribed provides many benefits. Among them, it: 1 Allows the HIV medication to reduce the amount of HIV in your body (also called the viral load) to a very low level. This is called viral suppression. If the viral load is so low that it doesn’t show up in a standard lab test, this is called having an undetectable viral load. Getting and keeping an undetectable viral load is the best thing you can do to stay healthy. 2 Helps protect your partners. If you take HIV medication every day, exactly as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load, you have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through sex. This is called Treatment as Prevention
What to do if you miss a lot of medication?
If you find you miss a lot of doses, talk to your health care provider or pharmacist about ways to help you remember your medicines. You and your health care provider may even decide to change your treatment regimen to fit your health care needs and life situation, which may change over time.
Can you get sick from taking HIV medication?
Taking your HIV medication every day, exactly the way your health care provider tells you to will help keep your viral load low and your CD4 cell count high. If you skip doses, even now and then, you are giving HIV the chance to multiply rapidly. This could weaken your immune system, and you could become sick.
Why do people take HIV medication every day?
That’s because HIV treatment involves taking HIV medication every day, exactly as prescribed to lower the amount of HIV in your body (also called the viral load) to a very low level. This is called viral suppression.
How to remind HIV patients to take their medication?
Your medicine will be ready when you need it, and you won’t run out. Ask a family member or friend to encourage you and give you a daily phone call, text, or email to remind to take your HIV medication. Continue to see your health care provider regularly.
How to remember if you took HIV medication?
Try a weekly or monthly pill box with compartments for each day of the week to help you remember whether or not you took your medicine that day. Set an alarm on your clock, watch, or phone for the time you take your HIV medication. Keep a daily log or use a calendar to keep track of the days you have taken your HIV medication.
What are the best ways to help with mental health?
Again, your health care provider is an important source of information to help with your mental health needs. Alcohol or drug use. If substance use is interfering with your ability to keep yourself healthy, it may be time to seek help to quit or better manage it. Treatment fatigue.
Why is it important to have regular medical visits?
Regular medical visits are important to monitor the amount of virus in your blood to make sure it stays undetectable, and to receive other medical support. Use these visits to talk openly to your provider about any help you might need sticking to your treatment plan..
Can HIV be transmitted through sex?
There is also a prevention benefit: people living with HIV who take HIV medication daily as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through sex.
Can you keep medications at work?
But make sure you talk to your health care provider—some medications are affected by extreme temperatures, and it is not always possible to keep medications at work. Being sick or depressed.
How long can a person with HIV live without treatment?
People with AIDS can have a high viral load and be very infectious. Without treatment, people with AIDS typically survive about three years. This info sheet provides basic information about HIV. This timeline looks at the history of HIV and the role CDC has played in addressing the epidemic.
How many stages of HIV are there?
What are the stages of HIV? When people with HIV don’t get treatment, they typically progress through three stages. But HIV medicine can slow or prevent progression of the disease. With the advancements in treatment, progression to Stage 3 is less common today than in the early days of HIV.
What happens if you don't get HIV?
If HIV is not treated, it can lead to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Learning the basics about HIV can keep you healthy and prevent HIV transmission. You can also download materials to share or watch videos on basic information about HIV. If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device.
What is stage 3 of HIV?
Stage 3: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) The most severe phase of HIV infection. People with AIDS have such badly damaged immune systems that they get an increasing number of severe illnesses, called opportunistic infections.
How long has HIV been around?
We know that the virus has existed in the United States since at least the mid to late 1970s. To learn more about the history of HIV in the United States and CDC’s response to the epidemic, see CDC’s HIV and AIDS Timeline. How do I know if I have HIV? The only way to know for sure whether you have HIV is to get tested.
Can HIV be transmitted faster?
People may not have any symptoms or get sick during this phase. Without taking HIV medicine, this period may last a decade or longer, but some may progress faster. People can transmit HIV in this phase.
Is HIV contagious?
They are very contagious. Some people have flu-like symptoms. This is the body’s natural response to infection. But some people may not feel sick right away or at all. If you have flu-like symptoms and think you may have been exposed to HIV, seek medical care and ask for a test to diagnose acute infection.
How to get rid of HIV?
Some health problems may weaken your body, make your HIV worse, or prevent your treatment from working. Give you immunizations, if you need them. Discuss, prescribe, and monitor your HIV medicine.
How often do you check your CD4?
This makes it difficult for your body to fight infections. Your health care provider will check your CD4 count every 3 to 6 months.
What is a PA for HIV?
Physician Assistant (PA). Your primary HIV health care provider will. determine which HIV medicine is best for you, prescribe HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART), monitor your progress and help you manage your health, and. put you in touch with other HIV providers who can address your needs.
What to expect during a medical visit?
What can I expect during a medical visit? During your medical visit, your health care provider may ask questions and conduct routine medical exams to see how HIV is affecting your body. Your health care provider may. Take a blood sample to check your viral load.
What is the best treatment for HIV?
Treatment with HIV medicines (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) is recommended for everyone with HIV. HIV medicines help people with HIV live longer, healthier lives and reduce the risk of HIV transmission.
Why is it important to start taking HIV medicine?
To reduce their viral load, it’s important for people with HIV to start taking HIV medicines as soon as possible. Starting HIV medicines right away is especially important for people with HIV who have certain conditions.
Why is it important to maintain an undetectable viral load?
People with HIV who maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex. To reduce their viral load, it’s important for people with HIV to start taking HIV medicines ...
Why should pregnant women take HIV?
AIDS-defining conditions. Pregnancy. All pregnant women with HIV should take HIV medicines to protect their health and prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. All pregnant women with HIV should start taking HIV medicines as soon as possible during pregnancy. In most cases, women who are already on an effective HIV regimen when they become ...
Can you get HIV while pregnant?
Women with HIV who become pregnant and are not already taking HIV medicines should start taking HIV medicines as soon as possible. The risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV during pregnancy and childbirth is lowest when a woman with HIV has an undetectable viral load. Maintaining an undetectable viral load also helps keep ...
Does HIV medicine reduce the risk of transmission?
In addition, starting HIV medicines during early HIV infection reduces the risk of HIV transmission. AIDS-defining conditions. AIDS-defining conditions are certain infections and cancers that are life-threatening in people with HIV.
What happens if you leave HIV untreated?
In all but a few rare cases, if left untreated, HIV will progress to a stage of infection called AIDS. This is when the immune defenses have been compromised, and the body is less able to defend itself against potentially life-threatening infections. 2:51.
How long does a virus last?
This chronic (or latent) stage of infection can last for years and even decades in some individuals until such time as the hidden viruses are reactivated (most often when the immune system is fully compromised and later-stage OI develops).
What changes if a person receives no treatment?
A person's genetics or family history. Smoking and other personal lifestyle choices. This is, of course, if the person receives no treatment. The picture changes entirely if he or she does. 1 . Since 1996, the introduction of antiretroviral drugs has dramatically altered the natural progression of HIV infection.
What is genetic HIV?
The genetic strain of HIV a person has been infected with (some of which may be more or less virulent than others) The general health of the individual. The place where the person lives (including healthcare access and the incidence of other diseases or infections) A person's genetics or family history.
Can HIV be cured?
While HIV still cannot be cured, people newly diagnosed with HIV who get treated and stay in care can be expected to have near-normal to normal life expectancies. As with other chronic diseases, early detection is key to identifying and treating the infection as soon as possible. 2 .