Antiretroviral therapy, or ART, is a safe and proven way to treat HIV. Your doctor will want you to start right away — usually the same day you’re diagnosed. This is called rapid-start ART. Early and effective treatment can help you live a normal life. It can also lower the chances you’ll pass the virus to someone else.
The sooner you start ART, the better. That’s true even if you feel good.
“There’s no upside to waiting,” says Shannon Galvin, MD, associate professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Northwestern Medicine. “Everyone who has HIV will benefit from being on…
