viral rebound – when your viral load has been undetectable (under 50 copies/mL) and then becomes detectable. Sometimes viral rebound can be a lab error, sometimes a small temporary blip, and sometimes a real rebound that shows your virus may have developed resistance to one or more of the drugs in a combination treatment. See: virological failure.
Glossary
Selected words and phrases
gastrointestinal tract (or GI tract) is where we digest our food. It is a long tube that runs from the mouth to the anus. The gastrointestinal tract begins with the mouth and then becomes the oesophagus (food pipe), stomach, duodenum, small intestine, large intestine (colon), rectum and, finally, the anus. It is also called the GI tract.
NNRTI – Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor, a type of HIV drug – also called ‘non-nuke’.
Efavirenz, nevirapine, rilpivirine, etravirine and doravirine are all NNRTIs.
minor mutation – a drug resistance mutation that have a big impact on whether a drug continues to work. This used to be called a secondary mutation.
Immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome – see: IRIS