Master HAART with Picmonic for Medicine

Once the diagnosis of HIV is made, HAART can be initiated. Antiretroviral therapy is recommended for all HIV-infected individuals to reduce the risk of disease progression. It is also recommended for HIV-infected individuals to prevent the of transmission of HIV.

This treatment regimen consists of 3 drugs. A multiple drug approach helps to attack HIV at varying points of its life cycle and replication as well as to resist mutation.

HAART is initiated with a treatment of 2 NRTI medications; these 2 drugs are then combined with a third medication. NRTI medications work by inhibiting the binding of nucleotides, which reverses transcriptase, and by terminating the DNA chain.

The third drug used in HAART can be an NNRTI, which is a drug that treats HIV by inhibiting nucleotide binding, which reverses transcriptase at a different site of action than NRTIs.

The third drug used in HAART can be a protease inhibitor. This drug works by preventing the maturation of the new HIV from within the host cell.

The third medication used in HAART alongside the NRTIs can be an integrase inhibitor; medications in this class work by inhibiting HIV genome integration into the host cell.