Dear Fiona

 

 

What do you need to know? there are no good web sites with a short summary..but here it goes

 

 

Raltegravir- trade name: Isentress. FDA approved now in the US. It is an integrase inhibitor taken twice a day with or without food. It does not need Norvir. It does not have any significant interactions with other HIV meds. Probably the most effective HIV drug so far. We do not know how sustainable the response will be  after 48 weeks and it will depend on how many active medicines you are taking with it. Side effects do not seem to be bad at all: mostly flatulence and bloating during the first weeks

 

TMC 125- Etravirine- a second generation non nucleoside ( same family as Sustiva and Viramune)-  Not FDA approved yet but available via expanded access  if doctors fill out all needed forms.  No Novir boosting required. It may lower some HIV medication blood levels so talk to your doctor about it (You should not have any concerns of adjusting dosage if you are taking it with Prezista, Isentress, Truvada).  Rash is the main side effect.  Tricky drug to know if you have resistance to since the genotype test is not available yet.  If you had resistance to Sustiva or Viramune in the past, the drug may not work as well.  It seems to work OK with the main non nuke resistance mutation L103, however.  It is good that you are starting it with two other active agents.

 

Fuzeon- enfurvitide- T-20. entry inhibitor that works to attempt to block the virus gp41. Injectable under the skin twice a day. Drug with the most data in multidrug resistance.  One side effect: injection side reactions.  Almost doubles efficacy of other drugs studied with it. Do not use the needles that come with the product since they are too wide. Get your pharmacist to provide 31 gauge insulin needles since they are very small and do not cause as many problems. A nurse can come to your house for free as many times as you need to show you best injection techniques (you can find out more in fuzeon.com)

 

Darunavir- Prezista- Second generation protease inhibitor boosted by Novir. Very good results in those with baseline sensitivity to it (around 33% pf patients with Kaletra resistance have resistance to Prezista even if they have not taken it).  Side effects are the same as most protease inhibitors. It is a sulfa based drug so it can cause some problems in sulfa sensitive patients.