HIV can be treated by taking a variety of drugs called antiretroviral therapy (ART), but HIV cannot be 100% cured, but antiretroviral therapy helps control the amount of HIV in our body so that HIV-positive person can be healthy and live a normal life and reduce risks in transmitting HIV to other people.

     Antiretroviral therapy (ART) refers to use of a variety of drugs to control HIV in a body so that it does not increase by taking drugs correctly, timely, and continually without stop. ART is effective when an individual takes drugs the right way, timely, and follows doctor’ advice. Nonetheless, HIV is never gone from the body, but it just can be controlled to an extreme less, so it’s unable to destroy physical immunity of PLHIV as long as the patient is still treated by ART and can recover to become healthy as a regular person. ART also reduces likelihood of HIV transmission. The lower the virus, the lower the chance of HIV transmission is minimal. Additionally, ART holds HIV therapeutic and preventative benefits.
ການຮັກສາໂດຍຢາຕ້ານໄວຣັສ ຍັງຊ່ວຍຫຼຸດໂອກາດການເເຜ່ເຊື້ອເຮສໄອວີ HIV ຖ້າມີເຊື້ອເຮສໄອວີໜ້ອຍເທົ່າໃດ ໂອກາດທີ່ຈະສົ່ງເຊື້ອຕໍ່ຄົນອື່ນກໍ່ຈະຫຼຸດລົງ ນອກນັ້ນຢາຕ້ານມີຄຸນປະໂຫຍດດ້ານການຮັກສາ ແລະ ປ້ອງກັນການສົ່ງເຊື້ອໃຫ້ຄົນອື່ນອີກດ້ວຍ.

     Antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces livelihood of HIV transmission to your sexual partner. This means that you are likely to be infected with HIV if you have unprotected sex. Moreover, ART cannot control infection from other HIV species and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as Syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. This makes ART become more difficult. Hence, when you start taking ART, it’s necessary that you use condom with lubricant and regularly get STIs tested.

There are several groups or types of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) used to treat HIV, and which type of ARVs to be used is determined by the doctor for an individually specific patient. Each patient’s response varies to various types of ARVs. It’s important that the HIV-positive individual and the doctor should plan together for the treatment

Many people living with HIV (PLHIV) are concerned with the side effects of ARVs. In the past, the first-generation ARVs side effects may be severe, but with the more advanced production technology, current ARVs have fewer side effects. The side effects usually occur when ARVs are first taken, but later gradually decrease to disappear on its own, which may take several days to several months. The possible side effects include:

1. Anemia
2. Diarrhea
3. Dizziness
4. Weakness
5. Headache
6. Nausea
7. Pain, numbness in various parts
8. Itchy rash

If you have any side effects, consult with your healthcare provider/doctor for considering the change of the ARVs prescriptions, and never do that or stop taking ARVs by yourself.

     You can start the HIV treatment as soon as you know your blood test is positive. Taking immediate treatment after you know the blood test result contributes to long-term positive health impacts. Access to treatment means reducing the chances of transmitting the virus to the sexual partner, and the Ministry of Health's HIV treatment guidelines encourage PLHIV to receive treatment immediately, no matter how long they have been infected.

Effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) requires correct, timely, and continuous ARVs taking. ARVs help to control the spread of HIV throughout the body. If you forget to or take ARVs the wrong time often, this discontinues the control of virus load in the body, which allows HIV to be developed again. And then, such HIV would be more adapted and be resistant to current ARVs, which lead to a change to new ARVs formulation. If you forget to take ARVs timely, you’d better do that immediately or as soon as you realize it. If your forgetful period lasts for a day, please go ahead taking ARVs, but you need to take the ARV pills at least 2 hours. If you realize that you forget taking ARVs and it’s time to take the next pills in 2 hours, then you throw away the pills you forget to take earlier and wait for the next pill/s to be taken timely. Don’t take the forgetful one/s together with the next coming one/s.

HIV can be treated at provincial hospitals across the country as follows:

1. Setthathilath hospital, at Infectious Disease Division
2. Mahosot Hospital, at Infectious Disease Division
3. Friendship Hospital (150 beds) Infectious Disease Division
4. Luang Prabang Provincial Hospital
5. Luang Namtha Provincial Hospital
6. Xayabouly Provincial Hospital
7. Khammouane Provincial Hospital
8. Savannakhet Provincial Hospital
9. Champassak Provincial Hospital
10. Bokeo Provincial Hospital
11. Borikhamxay Provincial Hospital

There may costs at some ART centers, such as blood test on:

1. Checking for liver and kidney function;
2. Syphilis
3. Hepatitis A.B.C.

The average cost for an individual is about 200,000 - 600,000 Lao KIP (17 – 52 U$) There are totally 11 ART centers nationwide as listed above.

There are many types of unknown addictive drugs or narcotics if they reduce the effectiveness of anti-HIV drugs if they are used together with ARTs or not are still unknown. So it’s advisable to consult a physician. What we’ve now known is that if you take ARVs and you also use addictive drugs including protease enzymes inhibitors: PI or (Meth), (MDMA) and amphetamine, this may result in an increase of addictive substance in the body, which causes side effects of drugs leading to the cause of death. Therefore, the ARVs with letters “nir” at their name end, such as amprenavir, ratazanavir or darunavir may contain enzyme protease inhibitors. For 100% confidence, please consult with doctors or specialists.

When people living with HIV (PLHIV) take antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) regularly and continuously, the amount of virus in their bloodstream (viral load) decreases to the point where they are not undetectable during the test and are not transmittable to others.

If you have a viral load of less than 50 copies per 1 cc of blood, it’s called the test result is inactive or negative. The only way to know is the test is done in a lab.

Infected people who register at the ART center can be tested for HIV twice a year with no cost.

90% of infected people who take ARVs on a regular basis after the HIV test, positive results are not found after taking ARVs for 6 months or sooner in some cases where HIV is minimal in the blood.

No, you can’t. It’s important that you take ARVs continuously. Undetectable infection does not mean that HIV in the body is treated and gone 100%, but it means the antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) just control the increase of HIV, so HIV cannot be transmittable to others. If you stop taking ARVs, HIV will increase in viral load, thus contributes to impact on or lessen the immune system capacity and deteriorating your health and increase the chances of infecting others. Moreover, it also increases the risk to cause ARVs resistance.

Undetectable HIV infection does not mean that you are HIV-negative, because the amount of HIV in the blood can change, and it’s sometimes not possible to see a viral load increasing in a short period of time or reaching a test-positive level. It’s important to get tested for HIV on a regular basis because even if you assure that you take ARVs regularly, but other health factors can affect the viral load.

It depends on your situation, but the initial recommendation is that you get it tested every six months and consult with a doctor to evaluate the test results the right ways for you.

Viral load and CD4 is not the same. CD4 is blood cells that fight against the infections in your body. When HIV enters into your body and destruct CD4 cells and they decrease quickly, CD4 test is taken to detect cells volume in the bloodstream, while you prefer the viral load to go down. In contrast, the more the amount of CD4 you have in the blood, the better you are healthy. Taking ARVs regularly lessen the viral load until it’s undetectable and this increases CD4 cells.

A negative test prevents you from passing HIV to your sexual partner, but that does not protect your partner or yourself from getting other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Using a condom is important, especially if you have multiple sexual partners or you do not know if your partner has any other STIs and can still be infected with HIV additionally, making HIV in your body resistant to ARVs if your partner is STIs-infected and you don’t know about that. Hence, using condoms every time you have sex is the best way of protection, even if the infection is undetectable.

If your HIV has not been undetectable at least 6 months and you still take ARVs continuously, then your partner is not likely at risk of infection. Nonetheless, it’s better if you consider the advantages and disadvantages of disclosing your blood test results to your partner. If after the disclosure, and your partner is unhappy, your relationship may be affected, although there is no risk of infectious transmission. But, if you have STIs in accompany with HIV, you can still transmit HIV to your partner. So, your blood test results should be shared to your partner in order to find ways for good and appropriate protection.

Research shows that there is a lower chance of contracting other strains of HIV if both lovers’ HIV tests are negative. However, there is still a need to consider the risk of STIs infection and see how long the HIV tests have been negative and whether both take ARVs on a regular basis. However, condoms are still needed and will reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections.