HIV is a virus spread through certain body fluids that attacks the body’s immune system, specifically the CD4 cells, often called T cells. Over time, HIV can destroy so many of these cells that the body can’t fight off infections and disease. These special cells help the immune system fight off infections. Untreated, HIV reduces the number of CD4 cells (T cells) in the body. This damage to the immune system makes it harder and harder for the body to fight off infections and some other diseases. Opportunistic infections or cancers take advantage of a very weak immune system and signal that the person has AIDS.
Is there a cure for HIV?
No effective cure currently exists for HIV. But with proper medical care, HIV can be controlled. Treatment for HIV is called antiretroviral therapy or ART. If people with HIV take ART as prescribed, their viral load can become undetectable. If it stays undetectable, they can live long, healthy lives and have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner through s*x. Before the introduction of ART in the mid-1990s, people with HIV could progress to AIDS (the last stage of HIV infection) in a few years. Today, someone diagnosed with HIV and treated before the disease is far advanced can live nearly as long as someone who does not have HIV.
What are generic drugs?
When new drugs are developed, they’re controlled and protected under a patent. Only the pharmaceutical company that developed the drug-like tenvir em is allowed to produce it and supply it in a given region. In the UK a patent can last up to 20 years.
It’s now been more than 20 years since effective antiretroviral therapy became available in the UK, so a growing number of tenvir drugs are coming off patent. This means that other drug companies can make generic Truvada versions like the viraday of these medications.
Generic drugs are exactly the same substances as the original drugs and are of the same high quality but can be purchased for a much lower price, so the NHS benefits by spending less money on treatment.
The NHS uses generic drugs wherever it can to lower the cost of treating people for a variety of conditions. HIV clinicians and pharmacists are encouraged to prescribe generic drugs as it frees up.
NHS resources to pay for other treatments and care. Generic drugs are also popular in high street pharmacies and supermarkets: own brand paracetamol or ibuprofen are generic painkillers.
If you’re living with more than one long-term condition and are taking treatment prescribed by the NHS then there’s a good chance that some of your medication is generic.
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