HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS

HIV is an infection that kills your Helper T-cells. It takes HIV roughly 5 - 10 years to wipe them out, at which point your immune system collapses, which is the point in time when we call it AIDS or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. You then succumb to a firestorm of overwhelming (and rather unusual) infections. The big lab test in HIV is the CD4 count. It measures the remaining number of Helper T-cells. When the count is above 200, we call it HIV. When the count dips below 200 we call it AIDS or Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome. Alternatively, you can be diagnosed with AIDS if you contract one of the AIDS-defining illnesses below.

The HIV Treatment strategy is called HAART or “2+1 Therapy.” The idea here is to blast HIV with as many drugs as possible to prevent resistance. Give x2 NRTIs and x1 of some other class (NNRTI, PI, Maraviroc or Enfuvirtide)

The HIV Prevention strategy is called PrEP for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (risky sex) or PEP for Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (needlesticks). Give x2 NTRIs (Emtricitabine + Tenofovir)