When Should I Start Treatment, and What Should I Take First? en español
Why is treatment necessary?
If HIV is allowed to reproduce, or "replicate," inside the body, it will cause damage to the immune system. Ultimately, the immune system gets so weak that the body becomes vulnerable to other diseases. This is the point at which a person is usually diagnosed with full-blown AIDS, and the other diseases they get can eventually cause death. For adults who live in wealthy nations—such as the United States—the average time between becoming infected with HIV and the development of AIDS is 10 years.
This does not, however, include people who take HIV drugs. Clinical trials—studies in which new and old drugs are tested in humans—have repeatedly shown that HIV drugs can keep HIV-infected people alive longer. Treatment, therefore, is a very important option, and people living with the virus should consider starting treatment before HIV has had a chance to do serious damage to their immune systems. Some experts believe that people who start HIV treatment while their immune systems are still within normal parameters have the greatest chance of living out something close to a normal life span.
Recent evidence, however, suggests that mild-to-moderate immune damage earlier in the course of disease, as well as inflammation due to actively reproducing virus, might increase a person's risk for non-AIDS-defining illness such as cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. This evidence has prompted experts to recommend treatment earlier than they have done in the past.
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