Stribild vs. Atripla CDC

[MadisonTeddy]

Hey gang I am new here and being treated in Mexico on Atripla (one month). My Dr. here says that Atripla is the CDC recommendation for first line treatment. Is this true and is Stribild being considered?? Mexico is basically following whatever is happening back home in the US. Thanks

[Miss Philicia]

Guidelines actually come from the NIH (National Institute on Health) go to this .pdf for the most up to date (as of last February) recommendations:

http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/contentfiles/lvguidelines/aa_recommendations.pdf

Go to page 3 and the section "What to Start: Initial Combination Regimens for the Antiretroviral-Naive Patient"

Stribild is not yet on the "official" list. So, you're doctor is being accurate, but he's also not informing you that it's been almost a year since NIH made their last update, and Stribild was only FDA approved at the end of August. I would assume new NIH recommendations may appear next month and possibly Stribild will appear on it, but perhaps not -- Complera came out in 2011 and was not placed on the NIH list. Does that mean doctors here are not prescribing it? No, of course not.

At any rate, this should in no way prevent your doctor from offering the medication to you unless there's some Mexico-related cost issue. I don't know how things are run down there.