Is tenofovir, ziagen & viramune just as strong as tenofovir, ziagen, 3tc and viramune? My doctor has me on the latter but I know a lot of other people who just take the first 3 and are doing just as good. Thanks

The effectiveness of a combination depends on what therapy has gone before it and whether there was acquisition of a resistant virus at the time of primary HIV infection. If this is your first combination I would like to make 2 comments. Firstly that the combinations described have not been tested in clinical practice and therefore cannot be considered to be evidence based medicine. Secondly, several studies using abacavir and tenofovir with 3 TC have recently been stopped because of poor treatment response and a rapid emergence of resistance to all three agents. Until the suitability of these drugs as a backbone has been established it is probably best to not initiate this combination.

As an additional comment you may wish to look at the results of the 2NN study (widely reported on information/educational web sites such as The Body) as this study compared the effectiveness and tolerability of nevirapine and efavirenz as first-line therapy.

I hope this is helpful

Regards

Graeme Moyle