HAART and Heart: Reconciling Treatment

In 1996, the audience at the International AIDS Conference in Vancouver heard about Highly Active Retroviral Therapy (HAART), a combination of drugs designed to limit the replication power of HIV and revitalize the immune system. HAART became the standard of treatment in the developed world, and a combination of three or more drugs with dizzying dosing schedules required tables and timers to make them effective. But HAART changed the shape of life for people with HIV. Flash forward: putting drugs into combination formulas lessened the number of pills, eased up on the scheduling challenges and some side effects. We are now in an age where HIV is often billed a chronic manageable illness, although class, race, gender and geographical differentials defy this as a universal term. Even here in treatment-rich BC, not everyone who qualifies is on treatment. The reasons why go beyond medicine.   

Anecdotally, members report  various reactions to the HIV therapy, and women often talk about their readiness to be on them. Taking the step to commit to drug therapy that could be part of the balance of their lives is not an inconsequential decision. They worry about side effects, and how they could affect their lives and people that they are responsible to and for. They feel they aren’t ready when they don’t have a stable housing situation, or are still using drugs to the point that they fear they wouldn’t manage a dosing schedule. We also hear that living in small cities or remote communities prompts fears about being exposed as HIV-positive to the community (that standard dragon, Stigma, rears its ugly head again).

Being on HIV treatment is more than a medical decision, it’s also an emotional decision. It’s a decision to face diagnosis again, a decision to make changes in the daily rhythms of life. It can be a change in health or recovery status, and taking the risk of disclosure. To embrace HIV treatment, people need good support for the fundamentals- drug treatment, housing, food. And they need to understand what it means to be on it- the benefits, the risks, the commitment and considerations. Positive peers, community supports, and health care providers can all play a role in providing accessible information and the bridges to support. Lives really depend on it.

- Janet

This was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Body Health, HIV Treatment, Support . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.

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