International HIV Medications movement

[jakager]

Just moved to Nepal and realized that my usual medications from the USA are not available. i am told the only way to get them would be to travel to a country where they are available and physically bring back my monthly prescriptions every month! Does any one has experience with how to deal with such situation? How can I easily import medications into a country like Nepal without all the government hoops that i am being told I face? can afford the cost medications (thanks to having international medical insurance) my challenge is that I can't afford the time nor the cost to fly international every month to get the medications! Please any advice!

[mecch]

Hey welcome to the forum
I have questions more than advice, sorry.
Nepal told you that you can't have medicine shipped to you? Who exactly told you that?  Are you sure its true? Might be the easiest solution to make sure you can't hav them shipped before you start jumping through hoops on other solutions.
Can you find other HIV+ people in Nepal and ask them what they do?

As an aside, did you think about this before you moved there?  Securing one's HIV meds for the long term is one of the basics for living well with HIV.... 

Also, get the list of medicine that IS available in Nepal and give it to your American doc and ask which ones can substitute, and how to take them, if there is a time coming up soon when you are going to be out of meds... Also ask how to safely do a treatment interruption, if all else fails, I suppose you might be confronted with that as an option.

[xasxas]

I am no expert on this, so take it for what it's worth but ...

I would think that you could easily pop over to India and pick up a 6-month supply of generics there -- assuming you're on a regimen that make there.  Or buy them online from India and have them shipped to you in Nepal.

[ratcat]

Yes xaxsas has good advice.  You can also fly to Bangkok as it's close as well.  India and Thailand are close, cheap flights and HIV meds are inexpensive there.  Here in Thailand you need a doctors prescription.  If it were me I would fly to BKK and have already made reservation at bumnumgrad hospital to cunsult with ID Specialist there and get a prescription(ask for 2) and then I would go to the Anonymous Clinic (red cross) on Rama 4 for my labs and meds(3 months worth) and then to Chulalongkorn University Hospital (next door on Rama 4) for my other 3 month supply!!!  A no brainer

[Theyer]

Welcome to the forums , jakager. I think ratcat and xasxas have mapped out good plans , as the plan in xasxas case includes the necessary medical monitoring.

You do not say what Passport you have, If its one that has representation in Napal you could also make inquiries there.

I would also check if the Red Cross and/or Red Crescent have offices as they,would have experience suitable to your Problem.

[Ann]

Hi Jakager, welcome to the forums.

If you put Nepal into the bottom box at aidsmap.com's e-atlas (leaving the top three boxes as they are), you'll get 31 hiv/aids organisations. Hopefully you'll be able to get some help from one or more of them.

You can also narrow down the search using the drop-down boxes in the first two fields.

http://www.aidsmap.com/e-atlas

Hope that helps, and please do keep us posted.

Ann

[Tool man]

When I picked up a year supply of meds in Panama, I had a doctor friend make my prescription for four pills a day instead of the one pill.
That year supply looked like a three month supply on paper if anyone wanted to check the situation.
(the minimum wage security workers do not generally know proper medical protocols) No one bothered to ask nor did they care as HIV meds are not considered fun drugs.
Just a thought because when you rely on these meds for your life, you sometimes need to be creative!

TM

[emeraldize]

Clever, but I envision few docs as willing to prescribe this way.

[Tool man]

I have never had a problem getting doctors to do as I ask.
Maybe I am just lucky that way.

tm