Question
Can I stop meds for a week if travelling to Arab Emirates?
1 August 2019. Related: Adherence, All topics, Stopping treatment, Travel.
I’m traveling to the United Emirates for 7 days. I´m taking Biktarvy right now, knowing that I can not take HIV meds into the country…
Will I be ok if I skip those 7 days?
I´ve been taking ARV´s for a year now and I´m undetectable.
Answer
Hi there
For only seven days it would be much better to keep taking your meds.
Biktarvy is a very small tablet, so you could pack seven pills in your hand luggage and say they are for something else, perhaps vitamins.
Although AE has this discriminatory policy, in practice some people travel with their meds, especially for a short holiday or work trip.
This would be better than stopping your meds.
Hi A,
Thanks for the advice that you’ve gotten from personal experience. However, there is a risk and people need to be aware of this. Also, when traveling to the US you don’t need to pretend that your ARVs are anything other than ARVs. It isn’t illegal to travel into the US with ARVs.
I am positive from Emirates, you can carry your medication with you , if you afraid, let the doctor write for you that medicine you use for other things like hepatitis or transplant medicine , same technique I use for my medicine if I am traveling to USA or other countries, even no one asked, still very good tricks