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Changing Your Treatment

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Sometimes you may have to, or simply want to, change your HIV treatment. This could be for any number of reasons:

  • Sometimes treatment doesn’t succeed in controlling HIV—a person’s viral load does not drop to an undetectable level or it does drop but then climbs back up to a detectable level.
  • A person can’t stand some aspect of the treatment— usually a side effect—even though their CD4 count and viral load are both good.
  • A newer HIV treatment with fewer side effects and an easier dosing schedule has become available.

You will need to work with your healthcare provider to make the necessary changes to your treatment. Don’t stop any medications without talking it over with your healthcare provider first. Suddenly stopping any drug could have consequences you don’t expect, including your HIV becoming drug-resistant.