Why is treatment adherence or medication compliance so important with anti-HIV medicines?
The medicines used to treat HIV infection are strong, powerful drugs. It is very important that all medicine used to treat HIV infection/AIDS be used just as your child’s doctor orders. This means the right amount, the right time, the right way (with food, or on an empty stomach) and without missing or stopping a dose. Not taking the medicines correctly could mean that the virus becomes resistant (changes or escapes the medicine). The medicine will not work or work as well. The virus may then grow stronger. If this happens, other anti-HIV medicines may not work very well either. This is called “cross-resistance.” IMPORTANT: Doctors, pharmacists, parents and patients need to know that forgetting to take medicines even some of the time may mean your child’s viral load (the amount of virus in the blood or other tissues) won’t come down or their CD4 (T cell) count won’t go up. The strong medicine just won’t work. If your child is having trouble taking a medicine, talk to your doctor, pharm
