Question
Can someone die from the side effect of HIV drugs?
29 May 2008. Related: All topics, Side effects.
Answer
Generally, HIV treatment are very safe.
In clinical trials only a small percentage of people usually need to stop treatment because of severe reactions. Occassionally these can be fatal.
One large study (the SMART study) showed that HIV treatment protects against many of the causes of death that people originally thought may be related to treatment or HIV – this included heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease and some forms of cancer.
This doesn’t mean that side effects are not serious, or in some cases fatal. This is why monitoring tests are essential in order to pick up any serious symptoms as early as possible.
Each HIV drug has it’s on side effect profile, and these are included in detail in the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC’s).
European SPC’s are included at this link on the EMEA website in each European language. They are included in the EPAR report for each drug, listed alphabetically by the drug trade name (ie atazanavir is listed as Reyataz).
Comment