I am a 42yr Hiv+ since 96 female who was doing well on epivar,zerit and nevirapine. My last CD4 was 792 with VL<400. My Chol-144,TG-121,HDL-42 and LDL-78 all of these I've been told are good. I felt good taking these meds but lost an extreme amount of lower body weight (no butt and legs look like toothpicks now)so in an effort to change this probelm I switched from zerit to ziagen. Will this help me gain lower body weight or should I have suck with what was working as far as my numbers go. I'm already experiencing trouble sleeping and body aches. Should I consider drug interruption. I'm not sure if my doctor or I made the right decision. Thank you for your time! Signed Uncertain

Dear uncertain, Switching zerit to ziagen is the best investigated approach for encouraging fat to recover. The recovery in fat takes ages, > 1 year, to become obvious but each day is a step in the right direction. Some people do find that they feel different on new drugs... leave it a while to see if it settles. If you have a fever and feel bad see your doctor striaght away. You may be sleeping poorly due to worries about lipoatrophy! If you feel the abacavir is upsetting you consider changing over to viread which should do the same job but may be better tolerated. With a great response to therapy like yours I really don't thing a treatment interuption is a good plan

Good luck and be patient

Best wishes

Graeme