How does combination therapy work?

Answer 1

Drug combination therapy, HAART (Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy) or "cocktail" therapy, is when several types of HIV medications are taken together.

Researchers have discovered that HIV/AIDS patients do better when they take more than one medication at a time (monotherapy).

Answer 2

The drugs that are used to combat HIV infection work by interfering with the process by which HIV reproduces itself - offsetting the advantage that HIV has over the immune system. Although the drugs can not entirely suppress the viral reproduction process, they can slow it down to a level at which the immune system is given both the opportunity to partially reconstitute itself and destroy the virus as quickly as it can reproduce. There are several different classes of HIV drugs (and several drugs within each class), all of which work in different ways at different stages of the HIV lifecycle. The four main families of HIV drugs are: * RTI - nucleoside or nucleotide analogue, also called 'reverse transcriptease inhibitor' or 'nukes' * NNRTI - 'non-nucleoside reverse transcriptease inhibitor' or 'non-nukes' * PI - 'protease inhibitor' * EI - 'entry inhibitor'. HIV drugs are normally administered in what we call 'combinations' (or 'combination therapy'), in which three drugs from two families are used together to attack the viral reproduction process on several fronts at once. A combination generally consists of two 'nukes', plus either an NNRTI or a boosted protease inhibitor .. although this can vary considerably depending how treatment experienced you are, what country you live in, what resistance you have developed to various drugs and whether you are pregnant etc. It is however important to note that HIV drugs are only treatment - not a cure - and require a real commitment to taking this new aspect of your life more seriously than anything else.

Answer 3

TB is becoming single drug resistant as new strains develop. Combination therapy attacks the disease in a multiple of ways weakening it's hold on the body. This also why HIV virus is attacked with a cocktail of anti retrovirals.

Answer 4

Combination therapy is the use of a combination of two, or more, drugs to fight a disease / infection.