In addition to the drug regimens used to treat HIV infection itself, there are medications that can be used to protect a person from what are called opportunistic infections: those to which a person with HIV becomes vulnerable once the T-helper-cell count begins to fall. Some of these infections are described in the following sections.
Pneumocystis carina Pneumonia. Early in the HIV epidemic, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia was the major cause of death among people with AIDS. Now, with the use of medications to prevent infection, it is still common but occurs much less frequently. HIV-infected persons are vulnerable to this type of lung infection if their T-helper-cell counts drop below 200. Several medications have proven effective in the treatment of this infection; of these the antibiotic trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole is the most effective and best tolerated. Other options—which tend to have more side effects and are not as well tolerated—include oral dapsone and pentamidine in an aerosol (inhaled) form.
*333\213\8*
