Experimental treatment approaches

Over the past two decades, HIV treatment has evolved from AZT (zidovudine, Retrovir) monotherapy to the current standard of care – highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) consisting of combination regimens that include three or more drugs from at least two different classes.

Despite the clear benefits of modern HIV therapy, treatment is not without its drawbacks, including immediate side-effects, long-term problems related to drug toxicity, difficulty with adherence and high cost. As such, researchers have explored various alternative treatment strategies such as regimen simplification, induction and maintenance therapy, alternating regimens and structured treatment interruption.