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Project Inform, established in 1985 as a national, non-profit, community-based HIV/AIDS treatment information and advocacy organization, serves HIV-infected individuals, their caregivers, and their healthcare and service providers through its healthlines, the PI Perspective, educational Town Meetings, online services, and research and drug access advocacy programs. All information is available free of charge; donations are strongly encouraged. For more information, visit ProjectInform.org.

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HIV Drug Book Revised

Pocket

From the Introduction

The HIV/AIDS epidemic that began in the early 1980s and continues unabated to this day has forever changed the face of modern medicine. On the most obvious level, the epidemic has led to a more realistic appraisal of the limitations of medicine in society. We now understand that disease can't always quickly be conquered by a single pill and HIV and AIDS may represent a life-long battle for those infected. More importantly, the epidemic has led to a necessary new paradigm in the doctor-patient relationship, one in which HIV-related information and knowledge have become recognized as critically important tools of healing.

The need for this new paradigm is nowhere more evident than in the seemingly endless and growing list of medications, experimental drugs, and supplements routinely used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. The nature of this disease?and the fact that no single treatment provides a cure outright?brings doctor, patient, and loved ones into near constant discussion of a bewildering array of therapies and how to use them. The wave of advances in therapy that began in late 1995 have further heightened the demand for well-informed doctors working with well-informed patients.

Basic knowledge of the drugs prescribed, including their possible side effects and other drug interactions, is only a starting point to empowerment. Today, the HIV-infected person must also become a strategist, concerned at every step with the long-term consequences of each decision about therapy. Moreover, the complexity of using the new treatments has made patient adherence as important as any of the drugs themselves. Hundreds of thousands of HIV-infected people face the daily challenge of incorporating complex and rapidly changing therapy regimens into their lifestyles.

These changes have led to a complete overhaul of The HIV Drug Book in its second full edition. Dozens of new therapies have been added along with a much wider presentation of the practical guidelines and suggestions Project Inform has always been known for.

Since its inception, Project Inform has sought to give people the tools they need to make sense of the myriad treatment decisions facing them. The HIV Drug Book is designed to provide a single, authoritative reference and medical strategy guide for using the treatments most commonly used by people with HIV and AIDS. The book goes far beyond the normal list of HIV-specific medications, incorporating all of the common antibiotics, painkillers, antidepressants, and experimental drugs that many people with this disease take.

Written in the language of the lay reader-with patients, caregivers, friends, and family members in mind-this book should be equally useful to physicians, who themselves must struggle daily to keep up with the information in this rapidly changing field. People living with HIV disease, we hope, will find personal empowerment in this book by understanding-independently of their physician-the medications they are using. For the physician, this book offers simplicity and clarity in the form of a readily accessible reference to the medications and strategies routinely used across the spectrum of HIV infection. For the caregiver, the most obvious benefit should be an increased level of comfort in taking care of someone with HIV disease. Far too often, caregivers are left with the thankless task of sorting, counting, and arranging the daily intake of medication. Those tasks become far less daunting when the caregiver has a complete reference guide, replete with names, dosages, warnings, interactions, and illustrations.

When Project Inform first sprang to life as a small service agency in 1985, we naively expected that our work would be completed within six months. Then, we assumed, the "standard" systems for educating patients and physicians about a new disease would be taking over. Little did we know that there was no "standard" educational system for HIV or any other disease. Over the next ten years, Project Inform became a primary source of treatment information for hundreds of thousands of HIV affected people and their physicians worldwide. In its wake were created the treatment?information departments and newsletters of dozens of other AIDS service organizations that eventually came to see medical education as a key aspect of their work.

One of the great lessons in AIDS recounted by both physicians and people with HIV has been the realization that well-informed people simply make far better partners in health care. And, when knowledge is shared, everyone benefits and the risk of error on any individual's part is diminished. We hope that this new and extensively updated edition of The HIV Drug Book will improve patient care for all people living with HIV disease.

Copyright © 1995, 1998 by Project Inform

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Excerpted from HIV Drug Book Revisedby Project Inform Copyright © 1998 by Project Inform. Excerpted by permission.
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