Truvada PEP in South East Asia

[Travertwo]

My endeavors to find Truvada for a Post Exposition Prophylaxis in the Philippines
(I like to share my experiences because a similar article written in German did help me a lot)

It started like it always does by a sheer accident; no matter if the condom broke or my brains broke at that time, it simply happened.  I (male, late 40’s) had unprotected sex was an HIV positive partner.

After the steam blew off and I found out what had happened, it hit me like a strike with a baseball racket. I instantly started to google for my odds…

At first I found some statistics about the probability of infection depending on the kind of exposure. There are a lot of different numbers, all one to something, some more probable some less. But these numbers are statistics only; who wants to be the 1? Certainly not me!

It didn’t take me long to find out about a so called Post Exposition Prophylaxis (PEP) which could suppress the infection if started within a short period of time after the exposure. Well it was three in the morning, just a few hours after my mishap, so chances were good…
In the Philippines some pharmacies are open H24. I wrote the name of this precious medicine “Truvada” on a sheet of paper and at 4am I popped into the next open pharmacy. My luck ran out when I showed the name of the drug to the sales girl, “sorry- not have”. Until noon I tried half a dozen pharmacies in vain. Out of desperation I went to the biggest and most famous hospital in town and consulted with a doctor. He didn’t have the treatment either but gave me the important information that in the Philippines Truvada is called Emtricitabine/Tenofovir which obviously is a generic produced somewhere in Asia.  With this information I checked again several pharmacies but still without success. Finally I skipped my further travel plans and headed for Manila where I hoped to find the required medicine a lot easier.  What an illusion! Even the pharmacy of the biggest hospital did not have this drug in stock. The nice lady called around but still could not get a single positive answer! Now I was broken.

Time was running fast, the frame of 48 hours closing rapidly. I would have spent any money on that drug but I just couldn’t get it! When I was about to give up I found in the internet the name of a clinic offering HIV treatment and PEP; not in Manila of course but Singapore. Well, at 6am I found myself at the airport jumping on a plane to Singapore and at 10am I showed up in the clinic of Dr.Tan on Bencoolen Street.  Thirty-five hours after the exposure I started a PEP taking Truvada and Isentress for one month.

There are a lot of side effects one can get from this treatment however save from some dizziness I didn’t experience any of these. After 4 ½ month I tested on HIV negative. I will never know if the statistics would have “protected” me anyway or if the PEP did its job but at the end of the day this is of no importance.