What Are The Other Possible Side Effects Of Biktarvy
Serious side effects of BIKTARVY may also include:
- Changes in your immune system. Your immune system may get stronger and begin to fight infections that may have been hidden in your body. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any new symptoms after you start taking BIKTARVY.
- Kidney problems, including kidney failure. Your healthcare provider should do blood and urine tests to check your kidneys. If you develop new or worse kidney problems, they may tell you to stop taking BIKTARVY.
- Too much lactic acid in your blood , which is a serious but rare medical emergency that can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: weakness or being more tired than usual, unusual muscle pain, being short of breath or fast breathing, stomach pain with nausea and vomiting, cold or blue hands and feet, feel dizzy or lightheaded, or a fast or abnormal heartbeat.
- Severe liver problems, which in rare cases can lead to death. Tell your healthcare provider right away if you get these symptoms: skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow, dark tea-colored urine, light-colored stools, loss of appetite for several days or longer, nausea, or stomach-area pain.
The most common side effects of BIKTARVY in clinical studies were diarrhea , nausea , and headache . Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effects that bother you or dont go away.
How Side Effects Are Treated
In most cases, side effects are worst in the first few weeks after treatment starts and gradually lessen until they disappear. They can often be controlled with other medications .
One of the widely used anti-HIV drugs is efavirenz . It makes some people feel drowsy or dizzy, unfocused and experiencing mood swings or problems with sleeping.
As well as efavirenz, small numbers of people taking dolutegravir and rilpivirine experience side effects affecting their mood or mental health. Tell your HIV doctor if youve had depression or other problems in the past, before you start HIV treatment.
These side effects are most likely to occur when treatment with the drug is first started.
Some people find that they can reduce the problem by taking their medication two hours before going to bed this is what the manufacturers of efavirenz recommend. Others prefer to take it in the morning to avoid sleep disturbance, which can include bad dreams.
Its good to know that a lot of emotional and mental health support is available, either through your clinic, your GP or through local HIV organisations. Use our service finder or contact THT Direct on 0808 802 1221 for details.
Understanding Hiv Drug Resistance
A change in medications to avoid certain side effects isnt always the best solution, Dr. Grinspoon says. In HIV, you can develop resistance to therapeutics if you keep switching therapies, he explains.
Per HIVinfo.NIH.org, drug resistance in HIV typically occurs when the virus has the opportunity to mutate and multiply, and a medicine that was previously working no longer does what it should. The risk of drug resistance increases when you dont take an HIV medication exactly as directed, or you skip doses, start and stop using ART, or switch medications often.
If an HIV treatment plan that was once effective no longer seems to be, tell your doctor. Blood tests can identify drug resistance and help determine other effective HIV treatment options for you.
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How To Use Ritonavir Oral
Read the Patient Information Leaflet provided by your pharmacist before you start taking ritonavir and each time you get a refill. If you have any questions, consult your doctor or pharmacist.
Take this medication by mouth with a meal as directed by your doctor, usually 1 to 2 times daily. Take ritonavir at the same time as your other HIV protease inhibitor. Swallow the tablet form of this medication whole. Do not crush, chew, or break the tablets.
The dosage is based on your medical condition, response to treatment, and other medications you may be taking. Be sure to tell your doctor and pharmacist about all the products you use . For children, the dosage may also be based on their body size.
For the best effect, take this medication at evenly spaced times. To help you remember, take this medication at the same time every day.
The tablet and capsule forms of this medication may deliver different amounts of medication. Do not switch between the tablet and capsule forms without your doctor’s permission and directions.
It is very important to continue taking this medication exactly as prescribed by your doctor. Do not take more or less of this drug than prescribed or stop taking it even for a short time unless directed to do so by your doctor. Skipping or changing your dose without approval from your doctor may cause the amount of virus to increase, make the infection more difficult to treat, or worsen side effects.
How Is Prep Taken
PrEP is currently one tablet of Truvada daily. It can be taken with food, or between meals.There is research ongoing to look at other medications for PrEP.
Truvada contains two medications, tenofovir and emtricitabine . Truvada is only available with a prescription.
PrEP is more than simply taking HIV pills. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued guidelines for the use of PrEP. One set of guidelines is for men who have sex with men. Another is for heterosexuals.
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Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors
These drugs interrupt the virus from duplicating, which may slow the spread of HIV in the body. They include:
- Abacavir
- Zalcitabine
- Zidovudine
Combinations of NRTIs make it possible to take lower doses and maintain effectiveness. These drugs include Combivir , Trizivir , Epzicom and Truvada . We expect more combination drugs to be available in the future.
What Are The Side Effects Of Prep
Pre-exposure prophylaxis meds are pills used by people who face a high risk of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus. These pills work to prevent the virus from infiltrating and spreading through the body system. However, PrEP drugs could have some adverse effects or reactions on some of its users. Find out more about the side effects of these medications in the article below.
Research findings show that people who take PrEP pills for an entire week and continue in this manner can achieve the 99% protection from HIV level . However, for this to be achieved, the pills need to be taken exactly as prescribed. Failure to follow prescription may result in a decrease in the level of protection that should normally be achieved.
One of the issues that users are worried about is side effects. Although the majority of PrEP users do not experience adverse reactions to the meds, a tiny fraction has observed and given reports of some adverse effects which occurred during the course of usage.
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What Should I Tell My Healthcare Provider Before Taking Truvada For Prep
- All your health problems. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider if you have or have had any kidney, bone, or liver problems, including hepatitis.
- If you are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. It is not known if TRUVADA can harm your unborn baby. If you become pregnant while taking TRUVADA for PrEP, tell your healthcare provider.
- If you are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Do not breastfeed if you think you may have recently become infected with HIV. HIV can be passed to the baby in breast milk. Talk to your healthcare provider about the risks and benefits of breastfeeding while taking TRUVADA for PrEP.
- All the medicines you take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements. TRUVADA may interact with other medicines. Keep a list of all your medicines and show it to your healthcare provider and pharmacist when you get a new medicine.
- If you take certain other medicines with TRUVADA, your healthcare provider may need to check you more often or change your dose. These medicines include certain medicines to treat hepatitis B or C infection.
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch, or call .1-800-FDA-1088.
Side Effects Or Toxicities During Pregnancy
The majority of studies have shown that taking most HIV drugs during pregnancy does not increase the risk of birth defects. However, there are certain HIV drugs that should not be used by pregnant women because of potential problems for the mother or the baby.
Talk to your health care provider if you are currently pregnant or planning to become pregnant.
Though there used to be some debate about the safety of taking efavirenz during early pregnancy, all major organizations now suggest that efavirenz can be taken throughout pregnancy, including during the first trimester . In addition, women who are successfully virally suppressed on a treatment regimen that contains efavirenz and who become pregnant should continue on efavirenz throughout pregnancy.
If you are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant, speak to your health care provider about all of your medications to be sure there are no specific warnings for pregnant women. The good news is that several HIV drugs are safe to take during pregnancy. If taken exactly the way they were prescribed, these HIV drugs can make the chances that you will pass HIV on to your baby very low .
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How To Manage Side Effects Of Hiv Treatment
Todays HIV treatments are more targeted and less toxic than the antiretroviral therapies of the 1990s and that means side effects are more manageable.
Advances in therapies to treat human immunodeficiency virus mean that people newly diagnosed with HIV can expect to live nearly as long as people without the virus, according to an article published in September 2021 in Annals of Internal Medicine, and with fewer short-term side effects from treatment.
HIV treatment today often involves a single pill once a day, says Paul Volberding, MD, a professor emeritus in the department of medicine at the University of California in San Francisco, in contrast to the side-effect-heavy, multi-pill regimens of the 1990s described in an article in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. The expectation is that people with HIV will have few, if any, side effects from treatment.
Researchers are still working to understand the long-term side effects of HIV treatment, and to distinguish them from physical changes that may be caused by the virus itself. Read on to learn more about short-term and potential long-term side effects of HIV treatment, and what you can do about them.
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Taking Care Of Yourself
HIV drugs help many people live longer, healthier lives. Side effects are an important factor in determining whether someone takes their HIV drugs as prescribed. While the term ‘side effects’ may make them sound like they are not a big problem, if they are getting in the way of your taking your HIV drugs, they may get in the way of your good health. If you are having trouble sticking to your HIV drug regimen because of problems with side effects, speak to your health care provider before skipping, reducing, or stopping your drugs. There is usually something that can be done about it, such as changing the dose of that drug, switching to another drug, or finding ways to treat or manage the side effect directly.
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What Is The Most Important Information I Should Know About Truvada For Prep
Before and while taking TRUVADA for PrEP:
- You must be HIV negative before you start and while taking TRUVADA for PrEP. Do not take TRUVADA to reduce the risk of getting HIV-1 unless you are confirmed to be HIV negative.
- Get tested for HIV-1 immediately before and at least every 3 months while taking TRUVADA.
- If you think you were exposed to HIV-1, tell your healthcare provider right away. They may do more tests to confirm that you are still HIV negative.
TRUVADA can cause serious side effects:
Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy
In 1996, highly active antiretroviral therapy was introduced for people with HIV and AIDS. HAART â often referred to as the anti-HIV âcocktailâ â is a combination of three or more drugs, such as protease inhibitors and other anti-retroviral medications. The treatment is highly effective in slowing the rate at which the HIV virus replicates itself, which may slow the spread of HIV in the body. The goal of HAART is to reduce the amount of virus in your body, or the viral load, to a level that can no longer be detected with blood tests.
Most people are likely familiar with HIV, but they may not know how it can affect the body.
HIV destroys CD4 cells , which are critical to the immune system. CD4 cells are responsible for keeping people healthy and protecting them from common diseases and infections.
As HIV gradually weakens the bodys natural defenses, signs and symptoms will occur.
Find out what happens when the virus enters the body and interrupts its systems.
Once HIV enters the body, it launches a direct attack on the immune system.
How quickly the virus progresses will vary by:
- a persons age
- how quickly theyre diagnosed
The timing of their treatment can make a huge difference as well.
HIV targets the types of cells that would normally fight off an invader such as HIV. As the virus replicates, it damages or destroys the infected CD4 cell and produces more virus to infect more CD4 cells.
Early on, HIV symptoms may be mild enough to be dismissed.
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Adverse Effects Of Antiretroviral Agents
Several factors may predispose individuals to adverse effects of ARV medications, such as:
- Concomitant use of medications with overlapping and additive toxicities.
- Comorbid conditions that increase the risk of adverse effects. For example, underlying liver disease from alcohol use, coinfection with viral hepatitis, and/or liver steatosis2, 3 may increase the risk of hepatotoxicity when efavirenz or protease inhibitors are used and borderline or mild renal dysfunction increases the risk of nephrotoxicity from tenofovir disoproxil fumarate .
- Certain ARVs may exacerbate pre-existing conditions, for example, psychiatric disorders may be exacerbated by EFV, rilpivirine, and, infrequently, by integrase strand transfer inhibitors.4, 5
- Drug-drug interactions that may increase toxicities of ARV drugs or concomitant medications, for example, when pharmacokinetic boosters such as ritonavir or cobicistat are used, or when isoniazid is used with EFV.6
- Genetic factors that predispose patients to abacavir hypersensitivity reaction,7, 8 EFV neuropsychiatric toxicity,6, 9 QTc prolongation,10, 11 and atazanavir -associated hyperbilirubinemia.12
Information on the adverse effects of ARVs is outlined in several tables in these Guidelines. Table 20 provides clinicians with a list of the most common and/or severe ARV-associated adverse events for each drug class. The most common adverse effects of individual ARV agents are summarized in Appendix B, Tables 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
Risks And Side Effects
HIV medicines can sometimes cause side effects. Some side effects happen for a short time. Other side effects can cause long term health problems. Tell your healthcare provider about any side effects you are having. Do not stop taking your medicine without first talking to your healthcare provider. Your healthcare provider may tell you tips to help you cope with the side effects. Your healthcare provider may also tell you to take different medicines.
- This page does not give the specific side effects and warnings for each HIV medicine.
- Talk to your healthcare provider about the side effects and warnings for the medicines you take.
- Check the FDA Web site to find more HIV medicine information.
My Regimen
It is important that you take your HIV medicines just as your healthcare provider tells you. Your medicines may not work if you skip a dose or do not stick to your schedule. Over time, you can get sick if you do not take your medicines as directed. Your HIV may become resistant to your medicines. This means your medicines could stop working and more HIV could build up in your body.
Here are some tips to help you remember when to take your HIV medicines.
- Use a schedule or planner.
- Set the alarm on your watch or phone.
- Use a pillbox to help you organize your pills.
- Ask a friend or family member to help you.
Chart to help you remember when to take your HIV medicine
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