Dear Doc,

Thanks for your hard work -- it really helps. My doctor took me off all anti-retrovirals (I was on Viramune, Epivir and Zerit) because I was showing symptoms of lactic acidosis. I had previously been on Crixivan instead of Viramune, but was showing signs of kidney toxicity. (My numbers were great -- undetectable viral load on the sensitive assay and CD4 cells of 500.) I was subsequently hospitalized for more than six weeks with various infections, and haven't taken any HIV meds since (about 10 weeks now). Now he's thinking of putting me on Viramune, and a combination of Norvir and Crixivan and that's all. What do you think?

You don't say what the evidence for lactic acidosis was, so I'll assume that that decision was correct. Some people think lactic acidosis is associated with nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors, which is why your doctor is looking for a combination that avoids those drugs. The 3-drug combination that you named should work fine, although you get really high indinavir (Crixivan) levels when it's used with Norvir (ritonavir), so if you had kidney problems before you'll have to be alert for any signs of recurrent kidney problems. Drink a lot of fluids.