Future hope? Antiretroviral therapy to treat HIV

1. The development of effective drugs targeted at the underlying causative agent of AIDS (eg, HIV) is paramount to reducing morbidity and mortality. 2. Antiretroviral drugs may either inhibit HIV replication at the reverse transcriptase phase of the replication cycle or they may attack the cycle before HIV enters the healthy target cell. 3. AZT has been found to reduce the mortality of patients with AIDS and AIDS-related complex, decrease the frequency and severity of opportunistic infections, and may improve neurologic functioning.