The most important fact about the HIV known till date is that the infection caused by it affects the immune system and no cure whatsoever has been found which can stop the virus from replication. But, the scientists the world over have come up with the antiretroviral drugs which can be referred to as the HIV medications. These drugs although cannot cure the infection but can to an extent treat it and prevent death due to opportunistic infections. The various types of HIV medications include:

The antiretroviral drugs :

These are basically used to treat the retroviruses like the HIV. These drugs are used in combination in order to treat the infection caused due to HIV. The HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy) is an important HIV medication technique employed in order to treat an HIV infected individual. This therapy includes a combination of two or three drugs in order to treat the HIV infection.

The classes of the drugs involved in HIV medication are as follows:

• Nucleoside and nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI): they prevent elongation of the virus.
• Non Nucleoside and nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNNRTI): they interfere with the functioning of the virus.
• Protease inhibitor (PI): inhibit the formation of new virus by replication.
• Integrase inhibitor (II): inhibit the formation of vDNA into the DNA.
• Entry inhibitors (EI): blocks the targets of the host cell.
• Maturation inhibitors (MI): inhibit the conversion of polyprotein into capsid protein.

There are around 20 types of drugs which are included in this category. All these are used in the form of combination with each other. The method of intake of these drugs is in the form of fixed dose combination. Also two to three tablets are taken each day.

For instance, the two NRTIs zidovudine and lamivudine, combined with the NNRTI efavirenz act as an efficient combination .The HIV medication is carried out in the from of the first and the second line of therapy. In case of the first line of therapy, the combination of drugs given to the patient in the beginning of the treatment whereas the second line of therapy is usually recommended in case the first line fails or doesn’t suit the patient in that case, a combination of other drugs i.e. the second line of therapy is given. There are various side effects of these drugs, they are:

• Rashes
• diarrhea
• abnormalities associated with heart
• nausea
• vomiting
• dystrophy associated with the fat molecules

Vaccines:

The HIV vaccines are believed to be another important form of the HIV medication. Although they are under the course of development and no such success has been achieved but it has been forecasted that once a vaccine is developed then it would result in cure of this HIV epidemic. There are two vaccines known to exist. They are:

• The preventive vaccines:
  They are believed to be used in HIV negative individuals to prevent infection occurring in them.
• The therapeutic vaccines:
  They are believed to be developed for HIV positive individuals and would be such that they would cure the infection in the body.

Although the vaccines are under the course of development but if they are successful then they would prove to be a boon.