Medicines
Anti-Retroviral Therapy
Anti-retroviral drugs continue to help people live with HIV, but only when they are able to access them.
When you purchase anti-retrovirals (ARVs) as a symbolic gift, you’re supporting MSF to give patients essential medicine to treat HIV.
Anti-retroviral therapy does not eradicate the virus, but slows the progression of the disease and improves the patient’s clinical state by reducing the chance for the virus to appear elsewhere in the body and increasing the CD4 cell count to levels beyond the threshold of the infections. This simplifies treatment and makes it easier for patients to take the medicine.
ARVs have dramatic effects in helping people stave off the infections that can lead to death, helping people enjoy a good quality of life. These drugs are urgently needed for people in parts of Africa and Asia, including children and women who are pregnant or who have contracted HIV. In 2010, MSF provided vital ARVs to more than 183,000 people.
