Question
Is my treatment effective?
6 November 2023. Related: Access to treatment, All topics.
Hi there.
Is lamivudine (150 mg) + Zidovudine (300 mg) + efavirenz (600 mg) effective treatment?
My CD4 is 410.
Answer
Hi, how are you doing?
How long have you been on this treatment? and do you know your viral load?
This is a combination used to treat HIV however it is not first line. It is usually only recommended is special circumstances.
Have you been on treatment before? or do you know if you have resistance to other treatments? Is this the first combination you have been started on?
It is an effective treatment but because of the side effects and newer drugs available it is not often used.
Josh.
Hi Aykhan, often this depends on what treatment you start with e.g., first line is used first and second is second. It is meant to work sequentially so that each ‘line’ works slightly differently and if you gain resistance to one, you can always try the next.
However there can also be other factors that determine the order of treatment e.g., access of treatment in country and cost to the healthcare system.
As long as you have not already tried and found resistance to the first line, it should be okay to switch.
Hi Josh, thank you for your answer. I’m from Azerbaijan.
Can I switch from (for example) third line therapy to second line? Or from second line to first line?
Hi Aykhan, which country are you from?
Each country will have their own treatments based on what is available to them.
Often the first line treatment is tenofovir + lamivudine + dolutegravir. The second line usually switches dolutegravir for a lower dose of efavirenz that what yourself is using. After this is what’s considered special combinations and for this there are multiple including yours.
This is not to say there are only 2 not special combinations. These are recommendations by the world health organisation. Individual countries can change and modify these recommendations to fit their own countries resources.
Hi Josh, thank you for your answer.
I started treatment on 19 October. I don’t know my viral load, doctors told me, that we will get your viral load after 2 month of treatment.
I haven’t been on treatment before. I don’t have information about resistance to other treatments since on our country we don’t have such tests.
This is my first combination of treatment.
I’m not from UK, so maybe our country we have this options.
Could you specify how many lines treatment are available and each line treatment example drug names?
Which line of treatment is mine?