Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART)—Plus: Next Steps to Enhance HAART in Resource-Limited Areas

Abstract

HAART has been extremely successful in suppressing HIV infection, restoring immune function, and improving health, and it has led to dramatic decreases in morbidity and mortality in those areas of the developing world where HIV infection is most prevalent. Studies from the ART in Lower Income Countries cohort and from Malawi, Uganda, Cote de'Ivoire, and India have clearly demonstrated that >75% of HIV-infected individuals who receive fixed-dose combination (FDC) therapy with a nonnucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor have excellent viral suppression [1–5]. These successes have been outstanding and have driven the scale-up of HAART as a global health priority. More than 2 million individuals in the developing world are receiving HAART; most of these individuals are in sub-Saharan Africa, which bears the brunt of the HIV epidemic.