HIV experts have found that using combinations of drugs, treating HIV patients with several medications, can effectively manage most cases of the disease.
But the latest study in The Journal of the American Medical Association says still more isn't always better.
Jim Shea has had HIV for almost two decades. He used to have to take up to twenty pills a day.
"It was three, four, five times a day that you'd have to remember to take meds, so those days it was extremely difficult, it was a full-time job just to stay on the medications."
Today medical advances mean HIV patients generally start out treatment taking three drugs.
"Three drugs has been working well for people. People can suppress their viral load levels, that is the level of HIV in their blood. They can increase their T-cell counts, which is an important cell in the immune system. But the question is could we do better?"
Dr. Roy Gulick is part of a nationwide AIDS clinical trial group funded by The National Institute of Health. The researchers compared treatment results in patients who took a three-drug regimen to those who took a four-drug combination. Their findings appear in this special HIV/AIDS themed issue of JAMA. 80 percent of the patients suppressed their levels of HIV in the blood for up to three years.
"What we've concluded is that the three-drug regimens that we have today for HIV are pretty good. That it's actually hard to improve over the standard drugs that we have today."
HIV patient Jim Shea says the study findings are great news - that fewer drugs means fewer side effects and more convenience.
"On the flipside of that however is the fact that the disease and the complications of the disease are being lost in the shuffle because people think, oh, all I do is take two or three pills a day and I am going to live this happy lifestyle and everything is going to be fine. And that's just not true."
In fact, no pills or medications can lessen the importance of HIV prevention.
