Source: BBC News
The first in a new class of HIV drugs has become available in the UK.
It means doctors will have a further treatment option for patients who have built up resistance to existing drugs. Raltegravir is an integrase inhibitor, which works by blocking an enzyme essential for HIV to be able to replicate itself.
An estimated 73,000 people live with HIV in the UK. Raltegravir will be reserved for those who have stopped responding to other treatment.
Resistance to HIV medication is becoming increasingly common - more than one in 10 UK patients with HIV has some level of resistance to at least one drug before they have even begun therapy, research has shown.
A clinical trial of Raltegravir published last year found it to be effective in patients who had been taking regular antiretroviral HIV drugs for about 10 years.
Treatment for HIV is helping people to live longer but, in the UK, one of the biggest challenges is the threat of resistance.
Integrase is one of three HIV enzymes the virus uses to multiply.
It inserts viral genes into the DNA of the host cell, effectively making it a "factory" for producing more of the virus. Without this, the virus cannot multiply and infect other cells as easily, reducing the amount of virus present in the blood.
The complete article is available on BBC's Website
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