NEW: Introduction to Combination Therapy – 2012 update
6 April 2012. Related: News.
The new and updated April 2012 edition of this non technical guide to HIV treatment is now available.
Print copies are free but bulk orders are only free to postal addresses in the UK and Ireland.
This guide includes information about the most important aspects of HIV treatment.
It is written and reviewed by HIV positive people and health professionals.
If HIV is new to you, many of the issues relating to treatment can be scary. This booklet should help you feel more in control of this aspect of your health care.
We update this guide every 12-18 months because information about HIV can change quickly. This is the 15th edition.
Information is based on the most recent draft UK guidelines (March 2012 draft). These include significant changes from the previous guidelines.
When appropriate we have also used European (November 2011) and US guidelines (March 2012).
All guidelines stress that HIV treatment should be individualised.
Main changes to this edition include:
- New recommendations for first choice of meds and alternatives.
- A new section on access to meds if you are not treated according to the guidelines.
- Recently approved new drugs and formulations. These include nevirapine-PR (prolonged release), etravirine 200 mg, rilpivirine and Eviplera. Nelfinavir and indinavir are no longer included in the ARV chart and paediatric doses for efavirenz and lopinavir/r have been added.
- That all newly diagnosed people in the UK are tested to see if the infection may be recent.
- New links to online risk calculators for heart disease and diabetes.
- Why treatment does not always work and drug resistance.
- Use of abacavir in first-line therapy.
- The more common use of atazanavir and darunavir rather than Kaletra when PI-based combinations are used.
- A new section on the use of the integrase inhibitor raltegravir.