Current treatment of HIV infection

The treatment of HIV infection in the industrialised countries has undergone manifest changes during the past decade. Since the advent of zidovudine in 1987, the first agent capable of delaying disease progression, several other nucleoside analogues have been introduced, though in retrospect the effect of these drugs can now be seen to have been moderate. With the introduction of proteinase inhibitors, more effective control of infection became possible, and the combination of a proteinase inhibitor with two nucleoside analogues yielded a triple-drug treatment capable of halting progression for a large proportion of patients. Thus, during recent years the disease course has changed in character from successive deterioration of the immune defence system to a condition where most patients can live virtually normal lives in many respects. For some patients, however, the new drugs have been associated with side effects, and our knowledge of the long-term effects is still insufficient.