Combination therapy can lower your viral load to the point where it can't be detected in your blood, and may also raise your CD4 count. Current antiviral drugs fall into three categories based on their actions. The second group of drugs block HIV in a similar way to the NRTIs but are chemically different. The goal of treatment is to find a combination of drugs that will be effective against your virus, minimize side effects, and be convenient enough that you can take it consistently. Antiviral Therapy And Resistance HIV reproduces itself so rapidly that it is constantly mutating or changing.
Antiviral drugs suppress the reproduction and mutation.
Otherwise HIV mutates in the presence of the drug, leading to virus that is resistant to that drug. That drug then will not be effective for you. This can happen when you take less than the recommended dose or miss doses. For this reason, it is best to not start antiviral therapy unless you can commit yourself to taking all your doses. If you are having problems with one of your drugs and feel you need to stop it, you should stop all your antiviral drugs and notify your doctor, nurse practitioner, or pharmacist.