A Practical Guide to HAART (Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy)

• Important Note to the Reader
• Acknowledgments and Credits

Part 1: HIV and AIDS -- The Basics

• Introduction
• The Viral Life Cycle
  • The HIV Virus
  • HIV Enters a Cell
  • HIV Takes Control of the Cell
  • HIV Becomes Part of the Infected Cell
  • HIV Tricks the Infected Cell Into Making Copies of Itself
• The Immune System
  • Outside the Body
  • Inside the Body
  • Immune Cells You Need to Know About
  • HIV and Your Immune System
• The Stages of HIV Infection
  • Primary Infection
  • Asymptomatic Infection
  • Symptomatic Infection
  • AIDS
• Monitoring Your Immune System and the Virus
  • CD4+ Count
  • CD4+ Percentage
  • CD8+ Count
  • Interpreting Immune Cell Changes
  • Factors That Affect Immune Cell Counts and Ways to Reduce Variation
  • Viral load
  • Drug Resistance

Part 2: Treating HIV and AIDS

• Before, During and After Starting Drug Treatment: The Body's Basic Elements of Health
  • Good Nutrition
  • Hormone Replacement
  • Exercise
  • Program the Mind Toward Healing
• Starting Drug Treatment: When
• Working With Your Doctor
• Issues to Consider Before Starting Treatment
• Choosing Treatment: With What
  • A Protease Inhibitor-Based Regimen
  • A Protease-Sparing Regimen
  • A Two-Class-Sparing All-Nukes Regimen
  • The Kitchen-Sink Regimen
  • A Kinder, Simpler Regimen: Once-Daily Therapy
• Drug Interactions
• Continuing Treatment: Making it Work Long-Term
• Changing Treatment
• Stopping Treatment
• Boosting the Immune System
  • To Make Drug-Resistant Virus Sensitive to Treatment
  • To Improve Quality of Life
• Cautions on Stopping Therapy
  • What to Expect If You Take a Break
• The End ... but Not Really

Appendix A: Antiretroviral Drugs

• Preface
• Entry Inhibitors and Fusion Inhibitors
• Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors
• Nukes or NRTIs (Approved in Canada)
• Nucleotide RTI (Approved in Canada)
• Non-Nukes or NNRTIs (Approved in Canada)
• Integrase Inhibitors
• Protease Inhibitors
• Protease Inhibitors (Approved in Canada)

Important Note to the Reader

This Practical Guide to HAART is chock-full of useful information about treating HIV and AIDS. However, because some of the concepts are complex, we encourage readers to read it at their leisure, one section at a time.

Acknowledgments and Credits

A Practical Guide to HAART, First edition (2002), Revised (2003) Revised (2006)

CATIE would like to thank the following people for working with us to help produce this guide. Their time and knowledge were invaluable and much appreciated.

Medical Advisory Committee
Dr. John Gill (Alberta)
Dr. Kevin Gough (Toronto)
Dr. Robert O'Brien (Quebec)

Authors
Lark Lands
Deirdre Maclean

Editor
RonniLyn Pustil

Editorial Committee
Sean Hosein
Tim Rogers

Contributors
David McIver
Wayne Stump

Design and Layout
Studio Bello! Susan Hedley

Illustration
James Turner

CATIE thanks Health Canada's Canadian Strategy on HIV/AIDS, as well as Bristol-Myers Squibb and GlaxoSmithKline in partnership with Shire BioChem for funding this guide, particularly their respective representatives, Ruth Pritchard and Lorne Fox.