Antiretroviral Therapy (ART)

Antiretroviral therapy, or ART, is the combination of medicines used to treat HIV by stopping the virus from copying itself in the body. Introduced in the mid-1990s, ART transformed HIV from a life-threatening illness into a manageable long-term condition. Taken as prescribed, ART lowers the amount of virus in the blood, often to levels too low to detect. The CDC and NIH confirm that people with HIV who reach and maintain an undetectable viral load stay healthy for many years and have effectively no risk of passing the virus to sexual partners, the principle known as Undetectable equals Untransmittable, or U=U. ART is usually taken daily for life. Global access remains uneven, with cost and healthcare infrastructure the main barriers.