Q and A

Question

How often can I miss a dose?

Hi, I have been on Sustiva/Truvada for 7 months and only missed 1 dose.
In your opinion how often could you safeley miss a dose? Not intending to purposely miss doses just a question really. Thanks!

Answer

I have a very traditional opinion and will have to say that you cannot miss doses safely.

The thing is that HIV does not mutate selectively, it does it randomly. Hense missing a dose is like a Russian roulette. During the period when the virus can replicate (as there is not enough medication to supress it in your body), it can mutate in such a way, that it becomes resistant to the medication, but it also can mutate in a way that it does not become resistant.

Hence every missed dose is a potential resistance provoker and it is more true with the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (Sustiva and Viramune) than with the protease inhibitors.

At the same time, as I mentioned before, not every missed dose will by default lead to resistance, but, again, less is better.

84 comments

  1. Roy Trevelion

    Hi Londiwe,

    What ARVs are you taking? And how long have you been on treatment. Some ARVs, such as Atripla, stay in your body for a bit longer than others. And if you’ve been undetectable for years it might be okay to skip just this one 7pm dose.

    But please can you call the clinic and ask them?

  2. Londiwe

    I accidentally took my ARV pill at 13:30 thinking its a multi vitamin… Can I take another one at 7pm again?

  3. Lisa Thorley

    Hi Kitty,

    Missing 4 doses of ARVs isn’t ideal. However you should be OK. Are you able to have your viral load checked?

  4. Kitty

    Miss my dose for 4 days
    Will it effect me

  5. Lisa Thorley

    Hi Sarah,

    For HIV treatment to be effective you need to take your full combination. Is there any reason why you only want take half?

  6. Sarah

    Can I take half of my hiv dose

  7. Lisa Thorley
  8. hish

    I forgot to take a pill and took it 7 hours later can I then take meds on my normal time

  9. Roy Trevelion

    Hi Lucas,
    Your question has been answered here.

  10. lucas

    I miss my time on taking my ARVpill I use to take them at 20H22now yesterday ive take them at 19H22 can I go back to mytnomarl time please help

Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *