Highly active antiretroviral therapy

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is a collection of "drug regimens, for patients with HIV infections, that aggressively suppress HIV replication. The regimens usually involve administration of three or more different drugs including a HIV protease inhibitor

HAART does not include drugs that do not directly target the retrovirus, but would commonly be used with such treatment. For example, while it is quite common to prescribe prophylactic antimicrobial agents to an immunosuppressed patient, these are adjuncts to HAART. Treatment of such clinical manifestations such as AIDS wasting syndrome, again, are complementary to HAART but not part of it.