ART is recommended for everyone who has HIV. ART can’t cure HIV, but HIV medicines help people with HIV live longer, healthier lives. ART also reduces the risk of HIV transmission. HIV attacks and destroys the infection-fighting CD4 cells of the immune system. Loss of CD4 cells makes it hard for the body to fight off infections and certain HIV-related cancers.

HIV medicines prevent HIV from multiplying (making copies of itself), which reduces the amount of HIV in the body. Having less HIV in the body gives the immune system a chance to recover. Even though there is still some HIV in the body, the immune system is strong enough to fight off infections and certain HIV-related cancers.

By reducing the amount of HIV in the body, HIV medicines also reduce the risk of HIV transmission.
Without treatment, people living with HIV can become ill because of the damage HIV does to the immune system. The immune system is your body’s way of protecting itself from illnesses caused by germs, bacteria or infections.

It is now recommended that people living with HIV start antiretroviral treatment straight away. This is being implemented in an increasing number of countries. In some places, the decision about when to start treatment is still dependent upon a CD4 count test, which looks at how many CD4 cells are in a small amount of blood.

The CD4 cells (also called T-helper cells) are an important part of the immune system because they fight germs and infections. HIV attacks CD4 cells and reduces the number of them in your body. Without treatment, HIV slowly weakens the immune system, making it harder for your body to fight off illness or infection. Discuss with health care profesional

the best time to start the treatment///////

Antoretroviral therapy
-A combination of HIV medicines (HIV regimens)
-Cannot cure HIV, but may reduced transmission

Daily exercise

Well-balanced diet & nutritious diet

Risk taking HIV medicines
- Side effects
- Drug interactions
- Drug resistance

PCR-based techniques are increasingly being appplied for the detection and diagnosis of viral diseases such as HIV infection. These techniques involve the amplification of DNA templates and can be extremely sensitive in detecting viral levels of less than 100 copies/ml of serum35. This makes PCR particularly useful for the early detection (within two weeks of exposure) of the virus35. Techniques involving PCR are, however more complex, time consuming and expensive than serological testing.

 

New development & research:

RT-PCR  (Kadhum Hassan & Gandhi, 2015) 

-          A specific and rapid diagnosis needed to minimize transmission of HIV-1 infection.

-          Specific against the gag gene of HIV-1

In-house NAT for HIV detection (Albertoni, Castelo Girão, & Schor, 2014)