3 Introduction to anti-retrovirals (ARVs)

3.8 Why 3 or more drugs are used

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None of the current drugs are powerful enough to fight HIV on their own. But a combination of drugs used together is strong enough prevent the virus replicating efficiently and control your HIV infection.

• When HIV drugs were first developed, people used 1 drug by itself, or used them in combinations of 2 drugs. In both these cases the benefit from treatment only lasted a few months, perhaps a year or two at the most, and resistance to the drugs developed quickly.
• Using 3 or more drugs together to treat HIV suppresses the virus to very low levels and the risk of resistance to the drugs is reduced greatly.

Using 3+ drugs together is called combination therapy.

Some combinations come as 3 drugs in 1 pill. It is important to remember that these single pills include 3 different drugs. These include:

• Triomune (d4T, 3TC + nevirapine)
• Atripla (tenofovir, FTC + efavirenz)