Glossary

antiretrovirals – the common name for any HIV drugs. HIV is a retrovirus, so drugs to fight HIV are called antiretrovirals. Also abbreviated to ARVs.

mean (average) – where all the results are added together, and then divided by the number of results to find the (mean) average. See median.

What is an average.

undetectable – an amount smaller than a test can measure. For viral load tests, this means below 400 or, more commonly, below 50 copies/mL, depending on the make of test. In research laboratories, some very sensitive tests can measure down to 1 copy/mL.

fusion inhibitor – a type of HIV drug (an entry inhibitor). Fusion inhibitors stops HIV ‘fusing’ to a CD4 cell. T-20 (enfuvirtide, Fuzeon) is only currently licensed fusion inhibitor.

Drug targets in the virus life cycle.

protozoa – a single-celled animals that are larger and more complex than bacteria.