Question
There was a stock out of ARVs, what is the risk?
18 February 2013. Related: Access to treatment, All topics.
I am on Odimune (Atripla) since 2012 June. My CD4 was 350 and viral load was 18000. In January 2013 CD4 was 450 and viral load less than 50.
I had to skip my treatment for two weeks because of delays in posting of my medication is this going to have a negative impact on my CD4 and viral load?
Answer
Hello,
I’m sorry to hear that you missed a few doses of Odimune because of stock problems. Has your clinic resolved this to prevent this happening again? Unfortunately this problem is far too common in South Africa. The Treatment Action Campaign are campaigning to improve this – you may want to get in touch with them for information about this, and what to do if this happens again.
It’s difficult to say whether or not this will have a negative impact on your treatment. Missing doses increases the risk of developing drug resistance, which would mean you would need to change treatment. The risk is probably lower if you stopped suddenly for two weeks and restarted, and higher if you try to spread your meds out to cover this period. But a lot of this is unfortunately down to luck. When you missed doses your viral load will have gone up, and it’s possible during this time that you may have developed resitance. The actual risk is probably quite low from a once-off, but the only way to know will be to monitor your viral load and make sure this stays below 50 and doesn’t go back up. See this link for more information about missed doses and drug resistance.
Make sure your doctor knows about these missed doses, and ask him/her to check your viral load now that you are back on treatment to make sure this is being kept down.
Hi Ingrid, it is good that your friend is back to taking their medication. It is likely that nothing will have happened and that they will still work. To check this, does your friend have access to a viral load test? This will check that the medication is still working?
Do you know what medication she is taking and how long she has been on it? It sounds like she is having some difficult side effects and there may be a better medication for her to take.
Hey i have a friend who is Hiv+ at 1st she was cool with her status i always support her and would remind her
Her meds so it happened that we arque bcz she wanted to stop taking her medication as dey made her feel dizzy,headache and always vomit we took about 2weeks not talking so on that period it sims like she stopped taking her meds as no1 was there 4her when times goes on we made peace and she told me she stopped taking her meds i was angry but i managed to talk to her until she agree and continue with the medication so my question is that since she took almost 2weeks not taking med wont dat affect her and cause problem as nou she continue drinking her meds
Hi Isla, please don’t worry. It sounds like you had a great response to HIV treatment (ART). Even though it is not good to miss meds, doing this once is unlikely to cause a problem. It is good that you started taking your meds again as usual as soon as you could.
Good day
I trust this finds you well.
I was diagnosed with Hiv last year 11/08/2021. So I started with my ART after a week, due to delivery, so my viral load was 94 that time and I started with my treatment for the first time.
After 6 months, I was supposed to go for my next blood test and it was on 28/02/2022. And my viral load has reduced to 50ml now I missed my treatment for 3 days due to work I couldn’t get my arvs delivered cos I was not at home, so my concern is that will I have to change my medication to prevent drug resistance or should I carry on with the Atenef/trivenz as it would be delivered on Monday and I’ll be home. Does this mean that my viral load will go up or my cd4 will go down? Because my Dr once confirmed that I’m very healthy and my viral load is relatively low and my cd4 count is very high, which is a good thing. So I’m stressing about the 3 doses I missed, please advise.