Question
What is muscle wasting?
30 June 2011. Related: All topics, Opportunistic infections, Side effects.
What is muscle wasting and what can one do to reduce it.
Why are my brother’s arms looking small and the skin looking dry on the face?. He is on efavirenz and tenofovir.
How is the research on better medication going?
Answer
Different things could describe what is happening to your brother.
If he was very ill before starting treatment and only started recently, then he should put on weight over the first six months of treatment.
Unexplained weight loss can be caused but different opportunistic infections, especially with a low CD4 count (under 200).
This can be both muscle loss and general weight loss. Sometimes arms get thinner because of fat loss, and this can be a side effect of some drugs (especially d4T and AZT).
It would be good to see whether this is general weight loss, muscle loss, or fat loss. In all cases, talk with your brother and his doctor about which of these might be more important.
See this link for more information.
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