Initial Antiretroviral Therapy: When and With What to Begin.

At the International AIDS Society-USA course in Denver in May 2002, Donna E. Sweet, MD, discussed issues related to the ongoing question of when to initiate antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected individuals and factors in selecting an initial drug regimen. Current treatment guidelines offer some consensus on the question of timing. Selection of the initial therapy focuses on the choice between regimens based on nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, or protease inhibitors.