The earliest HIV regimens or cocktails contained many types of meds & often dozens of pills. By the time I was taking meds, I was on about 2 dozen a day. In a few years that lessened by 18 pills. The med Fortovase was dropped in favor of an adjacent drug Invirase with a Norvir booster.
After a few more years, another med Didanosine or Videx was discontinued & I was put on Triumeq. For a little more than a year now, I've been on my latest med, Dovato.
My early meds were replaced due to causing many health issues dealing the heart, lipids, blood pressure, etc. Some of the early drugs were fairly toxic. thus a lot of testing to see how your body was handling them. Some of them ruined my hair & were hard on my teeth & skin. These meds came with a host side effects, many gastrointestinal.
Now I'm on a 1 a day - 2 drug med. They're developing PrEP that can be taken monthly or biannually. There are long acting injectable HIV meds that can last months. Weekly and monthly oral options are in development. That would mean between 12 - 52 pills a year. In the beginning that wasn't even 3 complete days of meds for me.
The meds are more effective, safer & easier to manage. Biannual PrEP could functionally put a hold on HIV. The only threats are ignorance, hate, greed & the orange stain. If these obstacles can be overcome, there might be a chance to control HIV.
That's all for now, take care.
Cya...
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