As this is the NEW website for the AIDS Committee of Windsor, AIDS Support Chatham-Kent, and the Drouillard Road Clinic, everything is new and in the process of being updated. If by chance there is anything wrong with the information, feel free to contact us.

Look through the list to the left for some of the various Anti-HIV drugs approved for use in Canada.

Drugs listed here all require a prescription from your family physician.

Each drug listed will give the basics on how they work, known side effects, who the drugs intended audience is, how to use it, and generally, dosages and how to get them.

Many also have information on whether or not they are suitable for pregnant women and children.

Because HIV can infect brain cells, it's important to consider a drug's ability to reach the brain when putting together an anti-HIV regimen. It's probably wise to include at least one drug that has been shown to cross the blood-brain barrier to some useful degree as part of your regimen. These include AZT (zidovudine, Retrovir), d4T (stavudine, Zerit), abacavir (Ziagen), nevirapine (Viramune), amprenavir (Agenerase) and to a lesser degree indinavir (Crixivan) and 3TC (lamivudine, Epivir). Efavirenz (Sustiva) has not been shown to cross the barrier to a significant degree, but some experts speculate that it might have some useful effect in impacting HIV in the spinal fluid.