Nearly every medicine can cause unwanted side-effects in some people.

Side-effects are a common cause of illness, discomfort and distress in people taking anti-HIV drugs – even in people who have an undetectable viral load and high CD4 cell count and don’t have any symptoms of HIV infection.

However, it’s not inevitable that you will experience side-effects from any of the medicines you are given to fight HIV or other infections. It’s also worth remembering that a lot of side-effects are mild, can be controlled with other medicines, and lessen or even go away over time.