ANTIRETROVIRAL DRUGS FOR AIDS

Treatment of HIV disease with antiretroviral agents has changed consid erably. We now know that monotherapy is not the best strategy in most cases to combat rapid turnover of virus and development of resistance (the exception being mother-to-child transmission) and various combina tion drug regimens are being explored. Apart from the main drug groups , consisting of nucleoside analogues, proteinase inhibitors, and rever se-transcriptase inhibitors, many new compounds are under development. The timing of therapy may likewise be important, and the indications of benefit from early initiation of treatment need to be confirmed in randomised trials. Overall, there is far more optimism about the use o f drugs in HIV infection than there was several years ago.