POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: clibro on May 28, 2010, 08:34:49 am
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I travel all over Asia. I was diagnosed positive in December so this will be first time as HIV positive. I go to Philippines alot but also Cambodia,Thailand,India,Nepal, Burma,Laos,Malaysia,Indonesia. Anotherwords,I move around alot and I worry about being somewhere where there are no Aids meds or they are too expensive. Then I would have to leave or wait out the gap without meds! One post said Aids meds are free in Philippines. Can I get SEVERAL months supply CHEAPLY in a certain Asian country? How much? How many months at a time? Can anyone provide details if that is true? Like where to buy? If its not Truvada or Isentress,do you know foreign name? Any details would be very much appreciated.
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There are generic HIV meds available for cheaper in the developing world. They do have different names. You should probably make sure that they are manufactured by a reputable company. Many of them are made by Cipla, a pharmaceutical company in India which is reputable so if they are made by Cipla it should be fine.
Generic Atripla is called Viraday. I believe Truvada manufactured by Cipla is known as Tenvir EM
I don't think they are making generic Isentress yet, maybe I'm wrong.
Another way to buy these is through reputable mail order pharmacies.
If you search on here for "generic" several threads come up with more info.
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Welcome.
It's not clear if you are taking HAART already.
If so, what is your current source and why isnt it enough for your travels.
If not, what makes you think during your travel that you will suddenly need HAART. It you don't need HAART now, then usually there will be no sudden, instant need for it.
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I plan to travel for over a year and the best Truvada can do here is 3 months if you tell them you are going overseas. Otherwise,its a month in the states. Please forgive my ignorance but I do not know what HAART means. When I get to Thailand (since along with India),it has best hospitals so I will check levels there. Basically, I am hoping to buy 6 months supply in some southeastern asian country (which?) cheaply and with little hassle. Is Isentress sold under that name if there is no generic?
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I plan to travel for over a year and the best Truvada can do here is 3 months if you tell them you are going overseas. Otherwise,its a month in the states. Please forgive my ignorance but I do not know what HAART means. When I get to Thailand (since along with India),it has best hospitals so I will check levels there. Basically, I am hoping to buy 6 months supply in some southeastern asian country (which?) cheaply and with little hassle. Is Isentress sold under that name if there is no generic?
Haart is the term for HIV treatment - the cocktails.
Isentress is a new drug and is very, very expensive. As far as I know there are no generic alternatives. Therefore I would advise you to take Atripla. There is a generic variant available at a reasonable cost from online pharmacies. I've read some people on the forums buying it. I personally would be very cautious - just because if the pill is not legit you would have no way of knowing if it's working without a Viral Load test.
Have you considered getting someone to ship you the drugs from the States?
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HAART = Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy - tritherapy.
Just so the members in this forum from the east can perhaps give you more information - maybe you could clarify - so you are taking tri-therapy already??? And what drugs? Are you living in the US now. So name the drugs you currently take and what you think you will need.
Truvada and Isentress? I don't think Isentress is produced yet in India. They make generic "atripla".
There are a couple of members from Thailand and also from India. I guess they will come in this thread eventually. How urgent is your need? When will you travel and when will you run out of your medicine?
By the way, welcome, again, and usually new members introduce themselves a bit so we can orient a bit our reponses to you.
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Therefore I would advise you to take Atripla. There is a generic variant available at a reasonable cost from online pharmacies. I've read some people on the forums buying it. I personally would be very cautious - just because if the pill is not legit you would have no way of knowing if it's working without a Viral Load test.
Borzel, don't go making recommendations like this to a newbie - we don't know ANYTHING about his medication needs and efavirenz is NOT an automatic replacement for isentress. And we don't even know if he is on Isentress.
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Makes sense, I assumed a few things that should be checked.
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I was diagnosed positive in December. Before my Travada and Isentress meds, my CD-4 count was 48. Its been climbing ever since and is now 650. I was also diagnosed with CMV,(relatively rare disease). For last 2 months,I finally got my appetite back and now I eat more than usual going from 148 lbs. to 172 in that time. My only complaints now from the Truvada,I assume is soft stools (not diarrhea) and an urge to make 4 or 5 trips to bathroom within a 30 minute period--thats it for the day. Also,periodic gas.
I am still hoping that I can hear from a souheastern Asian traveler who can say something like...go to this country,this city,this pharmacy,etc. and pay this for X amount of Truvada (new names) and Isentress. Sometimes, I stay in one place but alot of the time, I backpack to where it can be difficult to have it mailed to me.
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Also my viral load is currently undetectable.
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OK that clarifies. I am not a really long term member of this forum but I will private message people who are and ask them how to identify people from the countries. Get back to you shortly.
It would also help if you post an intro in "I JUST TESTED POZ" to get attention for your questions.
Also, sounds like a great reponse! Congratuations. And are you already strong enough to go backpacking around the world. Or is that part of your job so you must? Bravo to you. And by the way, there is no generic isentress so you will really have to discuss this travel and your medicine needs with your doctor, so you can be sure that, for instance, you know if you have any resistances to certain medicine.
You will need a list of drugs that might be available and that will ALSO be effective against your HIV, cause you dont want to screw up your great undetectable result - you have to keep taking a tritherapy combination that works on your virus - not any old drug on the market.
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Hi clibro, welcome to the forums.
I really rather doubt that you will be able to obtain Isentress in SE Asia as it is one of the newer drugs.
As Borzel says, there is another combo that is widely available in Asia. In its one-pill form, it is called Atripla in the West. The Asian equivalent is called Viraday and is manufactured by Cipla - a reputable Indian pharmaceutical company.
Atripla/Viraday is a combination of three drugs, two of which you are already taking. The one different drug is called Sustiva - its generic name is efavirenz and its brand name in Asia is Stocrin.
You may want to discuss with your doctor the possibility of switching to the Atripla/Viraday combo as it readily available (and fairly cheap, by Western standards) in Asia. If you suffer from depression, the Sustiva/Stocrin/efavirenz element of this combo might not be for you, but many people take Sustiva (Atripla) with no problems. Also, it's a once-a-day dosing combo and that might be easier for you while travelling.
If you want to read more about Sustiva/Atripla, have a look at the Treatments for hiv (http://www.aidsmeds.com/list.shtml) pages found elsewhere on this website.
You may get more responses to your questions if this thread were in the Living section of the forums. I can move it there for you if you want - let me know.
Ann
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The link below allows you to do searches based on countries and cities for HIV services throughout the world:
http://aidsmap.com/cms1038779.asp
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hi guys:
i was om atripla during my first month of being diagnosed as HIV+ (April 2010) and i was really happy with the results (CD4 went up from 60 to 130; VL went down from 256,000 to 724)... but i have to switch to viraday because of limited insurance coverage and i am still waiting for my adap to push through... if there are other guys here on viraday, i would appreciate knowing what this drug from cipla has done for them...
thanks!
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hi guys:
i was om atripla during my first month of being diagnosed as HIV+ (April 2010) and i was really happy with the results (CD4 went up from 60 to 130; VL went down from 256,000 to 724)... but i have to switch to viraday because of limited insurance coverage and i am still waiting for my adap to push through... if there are other guys here on viraday, i would appreciate knowing what this drug from cipla has done for them...
thanks!
They might not see this post from you. You might want to start a new thread and/or you can do searches for "Viraday" and "generic Atripla" and several previous threads will come up.
Viraday is basically the same thing as Atripla so there's no reason to believe it won't work. I personally would have no hesitation going on it.
The important thing is that you just don't stop Atripla now that you have started since that could lead to resistance due to the varying half lives of the drugs.
Will you be able to continue treatment uninterrupted?
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thanks for the advice... right now, i am continuing my medication with viraday, which i buy using money from my own pocket
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Cool. and great results.