How does HIV treatment work? 

HIV treatment is also known as antiretroviral therapy (ART). It suppresses viral replication in the body.

In HIV treatment, several agents are combined which target different sites of HIV replication. As such, it is known as combination therapy. This makes the treatment more effective and reduces the development of drug resistance.

Life expectancy with HIV 

If you start HIV therapy in good time, you will have a normal life expectancy and a good quality of life. That’s why it is so important to discover the infection early on with an HIV test.

Although the drugs available today are very effective against HIV, they cannot remove the virus from the body. As yet, there is no cure. The medicines must be taken regularly and, to our current knowledge, for life.

Undetectable: protection through treatment 

Successful treatment will eventually cause HIV to become undetectable in the blood. This is often referred to as a «viral load below the detection limit». At this point, HIV is no longer transmissible through sex. HIV treatment also allows people living with HIV to become parents by natural means, as the drugs protect against transmission during conception, pregnancy and childbirth.

At what point is HIV no longer transmissible? 

The following conditions must be met to make HIV untransmittable:

• HIV drugs are taken as prescribed. HIV protection through treatment is not impaired if a tablet is missed once. However, if it occurs more frequently, protection is no longer guaranteed.
• The blood values are checked by a doctor every six months at the latest. This also involves checking the viral load and thus the effectiveness of the HIV drugs.
• The virus is no longer detectable in the blood. This does not mean that there is no more virus in the blood. But the viral load is so low that transmission of HIV is no longer possible.

HIV treatment prevents AIDS 

Since HIV treatment suppresses the development of the virus, the illness is prevented from progressing and the onset of AIDS is prevented.

Thanks to HIV treatment, AIDS is becoming less and less common in countries with good healthcare. If AIDS does develop, however, this is often because the HIV infection is discovered too late and the immune system has already suffered significant damage. 

Even in these cases, though, HIV treatment can still halt the progression of the illness. The immune system is usually able to recover to a certain extent. Even if AIDS symptoms have already occurred, they may subside again. 

In summary, AIDS is preventable today and, unlike in the past, treatable.