The impact of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in selected private clinics in Lusaka

Abstract

The advent of HIV/AIDS has brought pessimism to the practice of medicine, especially in the developing world. More so because of the discrepancy between the advances made in the knowledge of the biology of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and how far away medical science is from a cure to this deadly disease.^ But the introduction of antiretroviral therapy for the treatment of HIV infection has ushered in another dimension to the management of HIV infection. With the widespread use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in developed countries there has been a decline in the morbidity and mortality of HIV infected patients.The management of HIV infection has fast moved from that of solely prevention to treatment. Prevention benefits only those who are not yet infected with the HIV, and those who are already infected do not benefit from prevention methods; their requirement being treatment, whether curative or otherwise, without which opportunistic infections and death are inevitable.