Efavirenz, emtricitabine, and tenofovir are approved individually by the FDA for the treatment of HIV infection in adults. Efavirenz and Emtricitabine have been approved for use in treating HIV in children.The three medications are often prescribed in unison and the manufacturers have combind them into a single tablet. Atripla (Tenovir/Emtricitabine/Efavirenz) came onto the market in July of 2006 as a FDA approved treatment for HIV. Atripla may be used as a complete regimen or in combination with other HIV medications.

As a result Atripla has become a leading medication in the fight against HIV/AIDS and has helped people living with HIV a great deal. This helps patients dealing with HIV by making their regimens both more simple and regimens more effective. This helps to reduce the amount of drug resistant mutations that happen.

Atripla does not cure or prevent HIV infection or HIV/AIDS and does not reduce the risk of passing the virus to other people. There are a number of side effects associated with the use of Atripla. More serious side effects of Efavirenz are confusion, depression, abnormal thinking, hallucinations, memory loss, thoughts of suicide, and paranoid thinking. Some patients can develop a severe rash. The medicine in Atripla can cause blood problems, muscle weakness, liver disease, blood problems and fatal lactic acidosis. Notify your doctor if you begin to experience pain in your joints, or muscles and weakness, trouble breathing, pain in your stomach with nausea or vomiting, feeling cold, irregular heartbeat, dizziness, jaundice, dark urine or loss of appetite. Patients should notify their doctor if they have any of the side effects listed. There are some side effects that are not as serious and generally lessen with continued use of the medication. Patients should notify their doctor if side effects continue or worsen. If you have hepatitis B and you stop taking Atripla it can cause a severe reaction.

Tags: pain in your stomach, HIV Medication, HIV, AIDS, HIV infection, Health, Atripla, trouble breathing

This is a quick look at how drug prices for HIV medications can be detreimental and our health care system can fall short. This does not only hurt the 40 million in the US without insurance but also those who are underinsured. HIV/AIDS medication can run up a huge medical billing, often costing thousands of dollars per month depending on the regimen. A common starting regimen consists of Kaletra boosted by Ritonavir/Lamivudine/Zidovudine. The cost of a 30 day supply for each drug can be as high as 198.99$, 289.99$, 385.88$, 170.00$. This totals over 1,000$ a month in just HIV medications. Other starting regimens including atripla can be more then 1500$ for a one month supply. So if you have no insurance your total care costs can quickly rise out of your reach with the combination of bills for doctors visits, medication, and time lost not working. You can even just be underinsured for medication costing you large copays exceeding 500 dollars a month. These factors can make it very hard for uninsured to pay for their medical bills and not go into debt. In the end this can hurt the overall health care you recieve, and potentially forces patients to go without care.

If you are recently diagnosed all the new medications and treatments will no doubt be overwhelming. It is critical that you start seeing a HIV specialist as soon as possible. They should take labs immediatly to help you start to get a better idea when to start treatment. The NIH did a study and determined the level at which you should begin treatment. Mortality rates go up if HAART is started below 0.200 x 10(9) cells/L. Also, nonadherent patients have higher mortality rates than adherent patients with similar CD4+ cell counts. Above a CD4 count of 0.200 x 10(9) cells/L, medication adherence is the critical determinant of survival, not the CD4+ cell count at which HAART is begun.

Tags: Atripla, HIV Drugs, Lopinavir, HIV Medication, AIDS Drugs, Health