The gold standard of anti-retroviral therapy is HAART.
What is HAART?
Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy is a combination of three or more antiretroviral drugs in the treatment of HIV infection. These antiretroviral drugs fall in three different classes and work at different sites on the HIV virus.
Nucleoside analogue Reverse
Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs)
The first effective class of anti-retroviral, drugs was the nucleoside analogues. They act by incorporating themselves into the DNA of the virus thereby stopping the building process. The resulting DNA is incomplete.
Name and class of drug |
Strength of preparation |
Adult Dosing |
Nucleoside analogue Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs) |
|
|
Zidovudine (AZT)** |
Capsules, 100mg |
250-300mg BID |
Didanosine (ddl)** |
Tablets, 100mg, 25mg |
100-200mg BD |
Lamivudine (3TC)** |
Tablets, 150mg |
150mg BID |
Stavudine (d4T)** |
Capsules, 40mg |
40mg BID |
| |
Capsules, 30mg |
30mg BID |
Zalcitabine (ddC) |
Tablets, 0.75mg |
0.75mg TO |
Abacavir (ABC) |
Capsules, 300mg |
300mg BD |
Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs)
The second class of antiretroviral drugs are the Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs) which stop HIV production by binding directly onto reverse transcriptase preventing the conversion of RNA to DNA. These drugs are called non-nucleoside inhibitors because even though they work at the same stage as nucleoside analogues, they act in a completely different way.
Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs) |
|
|
Efavirenz (EFZ) |
Capsules, 200mg |
600mg OD |
Nevirapine (NVP) |
Tablets, 200mg |
200mg BD |
Delavirdine (DLV) |
Capsules, 100mg |
600mg BD |
Protease Inhibitors
The last class of antiretroviral drugs are the Protease Inhibitors which work at the last stage of the virus reproduction cycle. They prevent HIV virus from being successfully assembled and released the infected cell.
Protease Inhibitors |
|
|
Saquinavir hard- gel (SQV) |
Capsules, 200mg |
600Jmg TID |
Saquinavir soft gel (SQV) |
Capsules, 200mg |
1200mg TID |
Ritonavir** (RTV) |
Capsules, 100mg |
600mg BD |
Indinavir (IDV) |
Capsules, 200mg |
800mg TID |
Nelfinavir** (NFV) |
Tablets, 250mg |
1250mg BD or 750mg TDS |
Amprenavir^ (AMV) |
Tablets, 300mg |
1200mg BD |
Lopinavir + Ritonavir^ |
Capsules (13.3mg Lopinavir + 33.3mg Ritonavir). |
400mg Lopinavir + 100mg Ritovavir BD |
Drugs marked ^ are not currently available in Kenya and drugs marked ** are available in pediatrics formulations.
