[The treatment of AIDS and its associated pathology]

A distinction has to be made in the treatment of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), on one hand there is the treatment of the associated pathology that these patients suffer when their immune system is unable to cope with diseases such as opportunistic infections and neoplasms; on the other there is the treatment of the human immune deficiency virus (HIV) itself. In this work we review the state-of-the-art of both therapies, paying special attention to the treatment of opportunistic infections, because they hold responsibility for the deaths in 80% to 90% of these patients; the importance of the concept of prophylactic treatment, primary as well as secondary, in these diseases is outlined. The treatment of associated neoplasms has a worse outcome. Finally the antiviral therapies against HIV itself, are discussed, paying special attention to zidovudine (AZT) and didexosinosine, two of the more currently widely used drugs in the treatment of these patients. We end with the review of combined therapy, which probably will become, in the next future, the solution in the treatment of this disease.