Antiretroviral therapy refers to any HIV treatment that uses a combination of two or more drugs. A healthcare provider may choose to prescribe a combination of three or more drugs to improve the treatment’s chance of success.

Antiretroviral therapy is an HIV treatment that uses a combination of two or more drugs.

Specialists introduced antiretroviral therapy in 1996 in response to the poor success rate among those taking only one HIV medication at a time.

The beginnings of three-drug antiretroviral treatment marked a turning point in the history of HIV treatment. The new treatment design transformed what used to be a diagnosis with a very poor outlook into a manageable condition.

Antiretroviral therapy has a twofold effect on the body. It increases the number of immune cells while also decreasing the number of virus cells present in the body.

Antiretroviral therapy has the following positive effects on HIV:

• Stops it from multiplying in the blood
• Reduces viral load, which is the number of HIV copies in the blood
• Increases the number of CD4 cells, which are immune cells that HIV targets, to improve immune system function
• Slows down and prevents the development of stage 3 HIV, or AIDS
• Prevents transmission
• Reduces the severity of complications and increases survival rates
• Keeps virus counts low in the blood

When prescribing antiretroviral therapy, healthcare providers typically use a regimen of three or more drugs for the best chances of lowering the amount of HIV in the body.

A person can, however, talk to their healthcare provider about a single pill that contains several medications.

There are seven classes of HIV drug, including around 30 different medications:

• Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs)
• Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs)
• Post-attachment inhibitors
• Protease inhibitors (PIs)
• CCR5 antagonists
• Integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs)
• Fusion inhibitors

Initial treatment regimens usually include two NTRIs combined with a third active antiretroviral drug, which may be in the INSTI, NNRTI, or PI class. They may sometimes include a booster, which may be cobicistat (Tybost) or ritonavir (Norvir).