One common treatment approach is HAART

One common treatment approach is HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy), which combines three nucleoside analogues, two nucleoside analogues and one protease inhibitor, or two nucleoside analogues and one non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor. Many other variations exist. Many of these drugs have side effects, such as nausea and diarrhea. In addition, some have severe drug interactions with commonly used medications. Fusion inhibitors are reserved for patients who are infected with a drug-resistant HIV strain.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved more than 22 drugs for treating AIDS-related conditions, including drugs that fight opportunistic infections and Kaposi's sarcoma. In addition to these medications, people with low CD4 counts should take certain medications to prevent the development of opportunistic infections. For example, people should take trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Bactrim) if their CD4 count is less than 200 per cubic milliliter of blood.

Treatment scams for AIDS rob trusting people of up to $10 billion annually. To fight these scams, the FDA formed the AIDS Health Fraud Task Force in 1989. Based on results of FDA investigations, some unapproved therapies to avoid are "energized" water, "ozone therapy" and the hydrogen-peroxide "treatment."