Taking AIDS medications can cause a variety of side effects. Exactly which side effects occur varies from person to person and depends primarily on the medication taken. In general, many drugs are better tolerated nowadays than they were a few years ago. As a result, therapy is now associated with significantly fewer side effects. However, it remains to be seen how taking newer AIDS drugs will affect patients’ health in the long term.
In general, a distinction is made between short-term and long-term side effects of AIDS therapy. Short-term side effects include symptoms such as.
- Headache
- Abdominal pain
- Diarrhea
- Nausea
- Vomiting
The symptoms are usually well treatable and usually subside after a few weeks.
Long-term side effects of treatment
In the long term, side effects such as organ damage as well as nerve inflammation and associated sensitivity disorders have been observed by taking medication against HIV. Possibly, the drugs also promote the development of diseases such as osteoporosis or diabetes.
In many AIDS patients, treatment also disturbs lipid metabolism. As a result, blood lipid levels can rise, increasing the risk of arteriosclerosis and thus of stroke or heart attack. In addition, skin rashes and depressive moods can also be among the consequences of HIV therapy.
Many patients also experience a disturbance in the distribution of fat in the body, which causes a rearrangement of body fat. There is often fat accumulation on the abdomen and neck, on the one hand, and a loss of subcutaneous fat tissue on the arms, legs, and face, on the other.
Treat side effects
Some side effects that occur as part of AIDS therapy can themselves be treated in turn by medications. To ensure that no interactions occur, the various drugs must be coordinated in a cumbersome manner.
It must be ensured that additional agents do not reduce the effectiveness of the AIDS drugs. In order not to jeopardize the success of the treatment, it is therefore immensely important that patients adhere precisely to the doctor’s instructions.