Question
What are the pills marked with M171 and D100?
25 December 2019. Related: Adherence, All topics, Starting treatment.
Answer
If your doctor prescribed HIV medication that looks like the pill in the picture and has M171 embossed, this is likely to be Tribuss.
Picture: Tribuss, manufactured by Aspen.
The picture is not very clear, but M171 is one one side and D100 is on the other.
This is based on the information at this website.
http://www.events.za.bz/news-archive.aspx?ID=697
Tribuss is a generic version of Atripla and it is manufactured by Aspen. It is widely used in South Africa.
Just like Atripla, Tribuss contains three active HIV drugs – efavirenz, tenofovir-DF and emtricitabine.
Sometimes Tribuss is mainly used as an HIV treatment by people who are HIV positive. However, this is an older treatment that is steadily being switched to newer drugs in many countries.
Some countries use Tribuss as a way to prevent HIV after recent risk for people who are HIV negative. This way of using HIV meds is called PEP. Tribuss is not recommended as PEP in most countries though because of the risk of side effects that are higher in people who are HIV negative.
This answer was updated in December 2019 from an orginal question posted in September 2016.
Hi Obeng,
As Simon says above, Sometimes Tribuss is mainly used as an HIV treatment by people who are HIV positive. However, this is an older treatment that is steadily being switched to newer drugs in many countries.
If someone is taking M171 drugs, does it mean the person is HIV positive?
Hi Dolla,
Tribuss is used to treat HIV. It is safe and effective and can prevent you passing on HIV.
In some countries it might be used for a month only as PEP to protect you against HIV. But it’s not recommended for this in the UK because of a very low risk of serious side effects. Please see this link to info about PEP.