Keeping Up With Your Oral HIV Treatment

When you decide with your healthcare professional that you should take HIV medicines, it is very important that you take the medicines according to your healthcare professional’s directions, including:

• What time your medication should be taken
• Whether it should be taken with food or on an empty stomach
• If you should avoid taking it with other medicines

Taking medicines correctly can have a significant impact on how well your HIV medicines work. When a dose of medicine is skipped, it gives the virus the opportunity to copy itself and spread more rapidly (increasing the viral load). Keeping the viral load as low as possible may help slow the progression of HIV. Missing doses could also lead to resistance. This is when HIV mutates or changes and stops responding to the medicine.

Follow your healthcare professional’s instructions carefully. Staying on your HIV treatment as directed can help you get the most out of your HIV therapy. Sometimes a busy schedule and other things on your mind can make it hard to remember to take your medicine. These suggestions may help:

• Connect your pills with something you do every day
• Keep your pills in a pillbox and carry them with you when you go out. This way, wherever you are, you’ll always have them handy
• Use computer reminders, telephone reminders, and watches–anything that trains you to remember. Forgetting is the most common reason for missing pills
• Place a reminder note near something you use every day—your refrigerator or television, for example. When you see your note, you’ll remember to take your medicine
• Make an appointment with a treatment counselor for support. Talking to a professionally trained counselor can make things easier

Do not stop taking your medicines without first talking to your healthcare professional.