Imagine having to take pills for the rest of your life, if you don't, well you die! That's a burden especially for people like me that hate pills. Well, this is goodnews for people living with HIV/AIDS.
The first long acting injectable for HIV treatment has been approved. It is only taken twice a month as opposed to daily pills as a result the chances of missing a dose of your antiretroviral drugs are greatly reduced and there's an increase in compliance to medications.
HIV still remains a major public health menace affecting millions of people worldwide. No cure has been found but it can be managed with daily intake of antiretroviral drugs.
This is a huge development in the treatment of HIV/AIDS because most times the cause of death from AIDS is due to lack of drug compliance and subsequent development of resistance to HIV drugs. So when this problem has been eliminated, death due to AIDS would be significantly reduced on the long run. The thought of having to take 6 shots of injections only once a year is indeed appealing especially psychologically. This is a huge development in the treatment of HIV/AIDS because most times the cause of death from AIDS is due to lack of drug compliance and subsequent development of resistance to HIV drugs. So when this problem has been eliminated, death due to AIDS would be significantly reduced on the long run
No cure for HIV has been found however research is still on going for a cure but in the meantime this injection call for celebration.
The injection consists of two drugs cabotigravir and rilpivirine.
IS IT EXPENSIVE?
I know what would be going through your mind, "This is too good to be true, there must be a downside"
"It would be expensive or only available to the elite"
Well it is not cheap but measures are being taken to make it cost effective for the general populace
What are cabotegravir and rilpivirine?
Cabotegravir and rilpivirine are injectables that are designed to last in the body for at least 2 months. Cabotegravir is sold as Vocabria while rilpivirine is sold as Rekambys and both must be given together. While on these drugs, patient should not combine any other anti retroviral drugs.
How do I take them?
The pills would be taken first for one month to ensure there are no drug reactions.
Thereafter the injections can be commenced
After one month of taking pills, you will receive your first injections given intramuscularly.
Does this drug have side effects?
Reactions from injection site like redness, swelling, pain and these decrease over time.
Muscle pains
Nausea and vomiting
Rashes
Can pregnant women and children take it?
Unfortunately it is not safe in children and kids
CONCLUSION
Even with this new breakthrough in medicine, prevention is better than cure. Practice the ABCS of preventing HIV/AIDS
Are those two connected? I mean, does the lack of drug compliance lead to the drug resistance?
Yes they absolutely are. Firstly, HIV drugs work at the genetic level of the virus.
The HIV virus is very smart😁, once there's lack of compliance, the drug concentration is reduced in the blood, it gives the virus time to replicate and mutate (change it's genetic characteristics) so a drug which was effective before fails. This is common in children. HIV virus easily mutates, that's why patients on drug therapy do cd4 viral load to assess the effectiveness of the drug and detect drug resistance early.
Wow! Interesting. I thought maybe you just happened to put those two sentences next to each other. Thanks for clearing that up. What you're describing maybe deserves a post of its own!
Come to think of it, it does..lol
I'd cook that up later. Thanks for the idea
Aids treatment has certainly come a long way since the 1980's when this disease first showed up...
This was new info to me so thank you!
Cheers!
Thank you for reading. It's a huge development and soon we would get ourselves a cure!!!
thanks @stormz-y for awaring us such informative content.Many of us not aware of such type of injection, this injection is the new hope for the HIV positive patient. May soon there will be a permanent cure drugs of HIV.
Thank you. We are all hoping on that. Science is life!!
Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!
Please consider delegating to the @stemsocial account (80% of the curation rewards are returned).
Please consider including @stemsocial as a beneficiary to get a stronger support.
Even with this new breakthrough in medicine, prevention is better than cure. Practice the ABCS of preventing HIV/AIDS
That was a nice parting shot. Prevention is cheaper and wiser!
Prevention is key!! But ignorance is eating up the masses especially in rural communities of Africa. That's why we do regular outreaches in schools and health centres. Thanks for stopping by