Antiretroviral Therapy: What It Is and Why It Matters

When dealing with Antiretroviral therapy, the treatment regimen that suppresses HIV replication and helps the immune system recover, most people also need to understand HIV, keep an eye on their viral load, and watch out for drug resistance. Antiretroviral therapy isn’t a single pill; it’s a combination of drugs that target different stages of the virus life cycle. The goal is simple: keep the virus at undetectable levels so the immune system can rebuild. This requires a mix of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, non‑nucleoside inhibitors, protease inhibitors, integrase blockers, and sometimes entry inhibitors. Each class attacks HIV in a unique way, which is why doctors prescribe a “cocktail” to cut off every escape route. The more angles you cover, the less chance the virus has to mutate and become resistant. That’s the first semantic triple: Antiretroviral therapy includes combination drug regimens. The second: Effective therapy requires strict medication adherence. The third: Drug resistance influences regimen selection.