HAART, or highly active antiretroviral treatment, is a treatment where three or more drugs are combined to treat HIV infection. This medication prevents the virus from multiplying in the body, which allows a decrease in the damage that the virus causes in the immune system and thus be able to delay the appearance of AIDS.
HAART also helps prevent the transmission of the virus to other individuals, including from mother to baby during delivery. The antiretroviral drugs used in HAART are: Zidovudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine. It should be noted that this treatment is applied completely free in public health centers.
Since its inception, this antiretroviral therapy has proven its effectiveness by registering a significant reduction in mortality rates. The main objective of HAART is to reduce the viral load as much as possible, for as long as possible, which would lead to a better quality of life in HIV-infected patients.
Other purposes of this treatment are: increase in CD4 lymphocytes, improvement of the determined immune response, control of viral replication, decrease of HIV transmission.
It has been shown that the disappearance of the HIV virus so far is impossible and that it must therefore be treated as a serious infection; Likewise, it has been shown that the application of HAART is capable of partially repairing the immune system, even in the advanced stages of the infection.
Before starting the treatment, certain parameters must be met that will indicate to the doctors when it is possible to start with it and if any changes should be made during the treatment, some of them are: a clinical evaluation that defines the clinical status of the patient. patient. An immunological evaluation, which consists of a CD4 count and a virological evaluation, which consists of measuring the viral load.
It is very important that when starting antiretroviral therapy, patients are constant with the treatment, in addition to the fact that this will be done for life, it is important that schedules and doses are respected, because this will depend on the virus proliferates.
