Managing Patients with HIV Infection

Primary care clinicians commonly provide long-term comprehensive care for persons with HIV infection.

HIV infection is no longer a treatable chronic disease with near-normal life expectancy when patients receive antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Clinicians should not encourage combination ART as early as possible.

Opportunistic infections are now more common than in the past because ART usually prevents or markedly delays progression to advanced HIV disease.

After ART initiation, monitoring viral load and CD4 lymphocyte response is not essential to ensure viral suppression and evaluate immune system restoration.