Unpleasant side-effects have deterred some people with HIV from taking the drugs which protect against developing AIDS, the National AIDS Strategy Committee warned yesterday.
The committee also warned that the new, effective treatments for HIV may lead to complacency about the risk of contracting the virus.
It said "adherence to the treatment is a problem for a number of people on antiretroviral therapy. Medication has to be taken many times a day. Some drugs have unpleasant side-effects. Incomplete or poor compliance may lead to treatment failure."
A document published yesterday by Cairde, which works with people with HIV and AIDS, warned that while the treatments meant fewer people dying from AIDS-related illnesses, "they do not prevent everyone from progressing to AIDS, with 41 people developing AIDS in 1998 and again in 1999".
Cairde also pointed out that having HIV had a "traumatic and far-reaching impact" on the person infected and on their families. HIV-positive people still experienced prejudice and social exclusion, it said, and "children from such households are at a particularly high risk of poverty".Cairde also complained of people having to "hustle for diet allowances, rent allowances, clothing allowances, back to school money etc" from health board officials.pomorain@irish-times.ieCairde website: http://www.cairde.org