Question
There was a stock out of ARVs, what is the risk?
18 February 2013. Related: Access to treatment, All topics.
I am on Odimune (Atripla) since 2012 June. My CD4 was 350 and viral load was 18000. In January 2013 CD4 was 450 and viral load less than 50.
I had to skip my treatment for two weeks because of delays in posting of my medication is this going to have a negative impact on my CD4 and viral load?
Answer
Hello,
I’m sorry to hear that you missed a few doses of Odimune because of stock problems. Has your clinic resolved this to prevent this happening again? Unfortunately this problem is far too common in South Africa. The Treatment Action Campaign are campaigning to improve this – you may want to get in touch with them for information about this, and what to do if this happens again.
It’s difficult to say whether or not this will have a negative impact on your treatment. Missing doses increases the risk of developing drug resistance, which would mean you would need to change treatment. The risk is probably lower if you stopped suddenly for two weeks and restarted, and higher if you try to spread your meds out to cover this period. But a lot of this is unfortunately down to luck. When you missed doses your viral load will have gone up, and it’s possible during this time that you may have developed resitance. The actual risk is probably quite low from a once-off, but the only way to know will be to monitor your viral load and make sure this stays below 50 and doesn’t go back up. See this link for more information about missed doses and drug resistance.
Make sure your doctor knows about these missed doses, and ask him/her to check your viral load now that you are back on treatment to make sure this is being kept down.
Hi Kgomotso, Sorry this sounds tough. But can you talk to the nurse and ask if your meds can be crushed? Some meds can’t so it’s really important to check with the nurse first. There are other meds that are liquid. They might help, but reports say they don’t taste good.
Hi
I started my medication a month ago ..im not missibgng my medication..but rhis past days ive been struggling to swallow any adviice im really scared off my body resisting the med..my nurse said i should cuti them in half but its still the same…pls assist im going crazy now..its almost 2 weeks now
Hi Tim, Thanks for this comment. Please see this similar question. So a CD4 percentage of 12-15% is considered similar to a CD4 count of 200 cells/mm3. Has your CD4 count also stayed around 754? Can you ask your doctor to check this, especially if you’ve been undetecable for a while.
Hi my name is Tim I just don’t understand why my cd4 is 754 but my cd4 percentage stays around 13% can you explain
Hi Siffy, If you still see the tablets in the vomit then you should take them again, as explained here. But missing one dose occasionally during years of treatment is not going to be a problem. Are you being sick often? If so, it’s important to talk to your doctor about this and find out why it’s happening.
What happens if one vomits 30mins after taking ARV. Does one needs to repeat the dose not. Viral load undetectable for almost 5yrs . CD4 count 326.
Hi Bucy,
Its not recommended to miss meds for 5 days. You may however still be OK as viral loads usually start to rebound after a week. Are you having issues with access?
Hello
what if I didn’t take my meds for 5days?
Hi Lulu,
Is this because the clinic have run out of supply? You can talk to the clinic about changing meds if this is the case. Make sure the clinic knows about any missed doses. You can ask them to check viral load again when you’re back on treatment.
Talk to the clinic about making sure it doesn’t happen again.
What wil happen if i dnt take treatment for 1 week