Is My Treatment Regimen Working?
Is My Treatment Regimen Working?
How will I know if my HIV treatment regimen
is working?
Your health care provider will use two important blood tests
to monitor your HIV treatment:
CD4 count
and viral load
test. e results of the tests will help your health care provider
determine if the anti-HIV medications in your treatment regimen
are working.
What is a CD4 count?
HIV attacks the immune system, destroying the system’s
infectionghting CD4 cells. Keeping the immune system
healthy is an important goal of HIV treatment.
e CD4 count measures the number of CD4 cells in a
sample of blood. e CD4 count of a healthy person ranges
from 500 to 1,200 cells/mm3
. An HIV-infected person with a
CD4 count of less than 200 cells/mm3
has AIDS.
Because a falling CD4 count is a sign that HIV is damaging
the immune system, the test is used to monitor HIV
infection. Once treatment is started, the CD4 count is also
used to monitor the eectiveness of anti-HIV medications.
Once you start treatment, you should have a CD4 count once
every 3 to 4 months. An increasing CD4 count is a sign that
the immune system is recovering. If your regimen is working
well, you need a CD4 count only once every 6 to 12 months.
What is a viral load test?
Preventing HIV from multiplying is another important goal
of HIV treatment. e viral load test measures the amount of
HIV in the blood. It’s the best measure of how well anti-HIV
medications are controlling the virus.
e best sign that treatment is working is reaching and
maintaining an . An undetectable
viral load doesn’t mean that you’re cured. It means that the
amount of HIV in your blood is too low to be detected by
the viral load test.
Once you start treatment, you should have a viral load test
within 2 to 8 weeks and then once every 4 to 8 weeks until
your viral load is undetectable. You need the test done only
every 3 to 4 months once your viral load is undetectable. If
you have an undetectable viral load for more than 2 or 3
years, your health care provider may recommend viral load
testing once every 6 months.
What causes treatment to fail?
HIV treatment can fail if anti-HIV medications are unable to
control the virus or protect the health of the immune system.
Sometimes treatment fails because of things you can’t control,
such as unmanageable side eects from anti-HIV
medications, interactions between anti-HIV medications and
other medications you take, or the body’s poor absorption of
anti-HIV medications.
Treatment can also fail because of
drug resistance
.
Sometimes HIV changes form and becomes resistant to
(not aected by) the medications in a regimen.
It may be necessary to change medications to deal with these
problems.
Can skipping medications cause treatment
failure?
Poor
treatment adherence
is another reason HIV treatment
can fail. Skipping medications allows HIV to multiply,
increasing a person’s viral load. To reach and maintain an
undetectable viral load, it’s important to closely follow your
treatment regimen. Poor treatment adherence can also give
HIV a chance to change form, leading to drug resistance.
Sometimes working with your health care provider to
improve adherence can prevent treatment failure. For
Terms Used in This Fact Sheet:
CD4 count:
The number of CD4 cells in a sample of
blood. A CD4 count measures how well the immune
system is working.
Drug resistance:
When HIV mutat
es (changes form),
causing one or more anti-HIV medications to be
ineffective.
Regimen:
A combination of three or more anti-HIV
medications from at least two different drug classes.
Treatment adherence:
Closely following an HIV treatment
regimen—taking the correct dose of each anti-HIV
medication at the correct time and exactly as prescribed.
Undetectable viral load:
The amount of HIV in a person’s
blood is too low to be detected with a viral load test.
Viral load:
The amount of HIV in the blood. One of the
goals of antiretroviral therapy is to reduce viral load.
This
information is based on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’
Guidelines
for the Use of
Reviewed
Antiretroviral
Agents in HIV-1-Infected Adults and Adolescents
available
at
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