Because AIDS is a fatal disease, AIDS therapies

Treatment

Because AIDS is a fatal disease, AIDS therapies focus on improving the quality and length of life for AIDS patients by slowing or halting the replication of the virus, and treating or preventing infections and cancers that take advantage of a person's weakened immune system. No vaccine is effective in preventing HIV infection.

Treatment for AIDS covers four considerations:

TREATMENT OF OPPORTUNISTIC INFECTIONS AND MALIGNANCIES. Most AIDS patients require complex long-term treatment with medications for infectious diseases. This treatment is often complicated by the development of resistance in the disease organisms. AIDS-related malignancies in the central nervous system are usually treated with radiation therapy. Cancers elsewhere in the body are treated with chemotherapy.