When Should I Change My Treatments, and Which Drugs Should I Switch To? en español
What does treatment failure mean?
Simply put, treatment failure means that the anti-HIV drugs you are taking are no longer doing what they should. In the past, the only way to determine whether or not an anti-HIV drug – or combination of drugs – was working was to measure T-cell counts and to look for signs and symptoms of disease progression. But these are all indirect consequences of HIV infection. The best way to see if anti-HIV drugs are working is to directly measure the amount of virus in the blood using viral load tests.
If your viral load does not decrease significantly while on anti-HIV combination therapy – or stay down while taking the drugs – you are at risk of seeing your T-cell count decrease once again and, quite possibly, experience symptoms of disease progression.
You and your doctor can monitor your viral load and T-cell count using routine blood tests. Used together, these tests can help you determine how healthy your immune system is and when you should start therapy. For more information about understanding these test results, click on the following lesson links:
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