[Clinical impact of combination antiretroviral therapy]

After the advent of HIV protease inhibitor in 1995, the clinical feature of HIV disease has been dramatically changed. Combination antiretroviral therapy containing protease inhibitor can suppress the viral load under the detection limit and recover the immune status in HIV-infected individuals. However, it still seems impossible to eradicate the viruses from infected individuals. They will have to continue the combination therapy for life with good compliance because incomplete viral suppression induces the resistant viruses. The clinical feature of opportunistic infections in HIV-infected patients has also been changed. In some cases, prophylaxes for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and Mycobacterium avium complex infections are not necessary after the introduction of combination antiretroviral therapy.