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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Does Virotrenz Have A More Cost Effective And Safe Substitute?

I was diagnozed with HIV a year and a half ago. ever since i ve been in retroviral therapy. originally my cd4 was bottomming at 140. But over this time has increased to +350. my viral load count has dropped to 30 per unit. This is still high as per my doctor and he has asked me to control my life style to being it below 20 per unit. I m currently on virotrenz , faburic 40mg and absolut . Of these I have been of an on in my intake of the last two medicines but am extrmely parti upar of virotrenz every single day. having said that it is a costly medicine. And after discount I am still finding it a little expensive. Could you suggest me some less expensive substitutes ? Also kindly adbise if it is at all safe to experiment with a substitute in the first place ??? Thank u for ur kind guidance.
Mon, 10 Nov 2014
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HIV AIDS Specialist 's  Response
you have 2 questions 1- reducing cost of meds and 2- improving reports

Virotrenz contains Tenofovir+Emtricitabine+Efavirenz 3 medicines of these if emtricitabine is switched to Lamivudine you may cut down cost to a significant level without having any effects on your health and disease status because these 2 are considered interchangeable pharmacokinetically and pharmacodynamically by WHO clinical guidelines. Also fixed dose combinations are available for both .

Your viral load count is perfect at 30 copies/ml goal of HIV treatment is to suppress viral load below 200 copies/ml by 24 weeks of starting ART and maintaining it. No need to worry about it at all.

Dr Abhimanyu Makane
MBBS CHIV FHM AAHIVS
Consultan HIV Medicine
Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital,Chinchwad,Pune,Maharashtra
Sterling multi speciality Hospital, Nigdi,Pune,Maharashtra
Spandan Hospital, Belgaum,Karnataka
Krishna Hospital,jalna Road, Aurangabad,Maharashtra
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Does Virotrenz Have A More Cost Effective And Safe Substitute?

you have 2 questions 1- reducing cost of meds and 2- improving reports Virotrenz contains Tenofovir+Emtricitabine+Efavirenz 3 medicines of these if emtricitabine is switched to Lamivudine you may cut down cost to a significant level without having any effects on your health and disease status because these 2 are considered interchangeable pharmacokinetically and pharmacodynamically by WHO clinical guidelines. Also fixed dose combinations are available for both . Your viral load count is perfect at 30 copies/ml goal of HIV treatment is to suppress viral load below 200 copies/ml by 24 weeks of starting ART and maintaining it. No need to worry about it at all. Dr Abhimanyu Makane MBBS CHIV FHM AAHIVS Consultan HIV Medicine Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital,Chinchwad,Pune,Maharashtra Sterling multi speciality Hospital, Nigdi,Pune,Maharashtra Spandan Hospital, Belgaum,Karnataka Krishna Hospital,jalna Road, Aurangabad,Maharashtra