Can a person use alcohol, tobacco or other drugs when taking ARV treatment?
ARVs and many other substances affect each other in different ways. These include prescription drugs, other medicines (cough remedies, pain killers, and vitamins), alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and narcotics. A person who is prescribed ARVs must tell his/her doctor or pharmacist what else they are taking. Some substances will have no effect on a persons ARV treatment, but others might change the effectiveness of the drugs. A person might have to change or stop using substances that interfere with ARVs, especially if the liver is not working well. Is drug resistance a problem with ARV treatment? Drug resistance happens when the HIV virus changes so that a particular drug cannot attack it. When this happens, ARVs can become ineffective; then a persons viral load increases and the immune system starts to be damaged again. Drug resistance happens much more easily if a few ARV doses are missed or taken at the wrong time. If a persons treatment fails, the doctor will try to change to a differe
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