Question
My US insurance stopped my meds – will a dose every second day be ok?
28 December 2024. Related: Access to treatment, Adherence, All topics, CD4 and viral load.
Hello, I am under Biktarvi, I have problem with my insurance, and the pharmacy won’t give me medications, now I am applying to a program that will help me with my medications.
I have been taken my Biktarvi every other day for more than a week now. And i missed 6 pills already.
Do you think I will be detectable by now? Hope someone could help me.
By next week, I will have my medications back and I will take it regularly again.
Answer
Hi there
I am sorry to hear of your situation.
Even though there are good and bad aspects of all health systems, it is shocking to hear you are treated like this.
HIV is serious enough for the US to develop a system that covers people when there are insurance problems.
Your doctor has given you good information by changing to every other day in order to make your drugs stretch another few weeks.
Although this has not been studied in large trials, this strategy should be okay for the next couple of weeks. This is because two of the drugs in Biktarvy stay in your body for several days after each dose. This will cover the shorter time that bictegravir stays in your body.
Although it is not recommended to routinely dose this way, it will cover you and your viral load should still stay undetectable throughout.
Hello anonymous,
hopefully this strategy will work until you are able to get your social security and access to medication back.
We don’t have evidence from large trials so we can’t tell you with certainty about how long this approach is effective.
It gives you some time to get access to your medication again.
What monitoring has your doctor recommended?
How long is a couple of weeks would be? I really pray and hope my viral load won’t be detected.