Question
Which anti-malarial should I take?
25 October 2012. Related: All topics, Drug interactions.
I am on HIV treatment. I take a combination of tenofovir,lamivudine and efavirenz.
I am now in a malaria endemic area. What medicsation should I take or treatment for malaria, that is does not react with my ARV drugs?
Is Coartem safe? Many of the anti malaria drags in the place I am now in contain artimetisinin/ artrtimetinin combinations. The malaria commonly found here is falsipurum.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation
Answer
Hello,
I’m not a malaria expert so I can’t tell you which medication is best for the area you are in.
In terms of drug interactions there is a possible reaction between efavirenz and these types of antimalarials. It is possible that taking these medications together could decrease the concentration of both the anti malarial and efavirenz in your body.
The Liverpool University drug interaction website can check these interactions online.
http://www.hiv-druginteractions.org
It’s not clear what the clinical implications are- i.e. if this would affect your treatment. So if you are taking these together you would need to be carefully monitored to make sure both were working well enough.
It’s important to talk to your doctor about this so that you can get the best treatment and monitoring possible. You can use  HIV-druginteractions.org to check which medications are OK to take with your combination.
Hi Merry21yrs,
There could be an interaction between efavirenz, one of the drugs in Atripla, and Mozitec. This might mean that Mozitec won’t work as well as it should.
But please talk to your doctor about what antimalaria meds you can take that don’t interact with your other meds.
Can I take atripla with mozitec
It is important to continue with both treatments.
But please ask your HIV doctor about this too. Some malaria drugs interact with HIV drugs, but not the HIV drugs that are most commonly used.
I just started taking arvs about three days ago and am also on malaria treatment tell shud I stop taking arvs and continue after I finish my malaria treatment?