ARV stands for antiretroviral. This is because HIV is a retrovirus.

Combination therapy is also called:

• ARV therapy
• triple therapy
• cART (combination antiretroviral therapy)
• HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy)

HIV is a difficult disease to treat. This is because the virus reproduces very quickly and in large quantities. If treatment is not strong enough or if doses of medication are missed, then resistance to the drugs can easily develop.

Combination treatment works because there are three different drugs actively fighting the virus.

If you miss doses or are late taking HIV drugs, then they may not work at all, or will only work for a few months.

In recent years some researchers have looked at whether one boosted drug could be strong enough to control HIV. These are studies using a class of drugs called protease inhibitors (PIs). Some people use one protease inhibitor boosted by ritonavir (another PI) as combination therapy. Only some PIs can be used in this way.

For some people this is almost as good as triple therapy combinations, but it is not quite as good.