Glossary

Tmax – the time taken for a drug to reach the highest (maximum) concentration.

What happens when you take a drug?

cholesterol – kind of lipid (blood fat).

fold-change – a term relating to drug resistance after a phenotype resistance test.

4-fold resistance (also called a 4-fold loss in sensitivity) means you need to use four times the dose to get the same reduction in viral load.

recency HIV test – this is a type of HIV test that can indicate whether you recemtly became HIV positive. This is defined as being the last six months.

It is sometimes called a detuned or RITA test (Recent Infection Treatment Algorithm). In the UK, this test is used to be called STARHS (Serological Testing Algorithm for Recent HIV Seroconversion).

It is also sometimes called a de-tuned or recency HIV test.

See this Q&A on RITA testing.

combination therapy – using three or more drugs together to treat HIV. It is also called triple therapy, cART (combination antiretroviral therapy)  or HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy).