Antiretroviral (ARV) medication
is special medicine that slows down the development of HIV into AIDS. A combination of ARVs is used in antiretroviral therapy (see below).
Antiretroviral therapy (ART)
uses a combination of special medicines (usually three or more) to slow down or prevent the development of HIV into AIDS.
Palliative care
is care that is given when little can be done to make the patient healthy again. This might involve reducing pain and making the patient comfortable.
Patent
means a licence giving exclusive permission to make, use or sell an invention (such as a medicine).
Sterile
means completely free from all germs.
Viral load
is the amount of HIV present in someone’s body.
