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Ask the Experts about Choosing Your Meds
fuzeon questionnn
Dec 3, 2006
hi carol. i'm a newly diagnosed hiv, 27 yr old, male, 811 cd4, 560 cd8 and viral load 100000. My doc ensures me i don t need treatment now, and ill get checked soon in feb again. My question about Fuzeon is: why only injected? and why only use it when people cannot use other medicines?. Any studies referring to fuzeon's effectivity used on patients with higher cd4 counts than 200?
thank you, nice work you all do in this site,
luis, espaņa
Response from Ms. Salisbury
Hi Luis, Fuzeon must be injected because the molecule is so large they were unable to make an oral pill that could be swallowed. Fuzeon is best used in a triple combination treatment with 2 other active HIV medications. It is not effective by itself. It is best not to save it to the very last regimen because there will not be anything left to put with it.
The amazing thing about the studies with Fuzeon were, it showed improvement of T-cells/CD4 count regardless of the number of active HIV medications. Most patients got 80-120 increase in the T-cells in the first 48 months on the study. Most patient in the studies were very ill and had low T-cells (<200).
My experience with Fuzeon has shown steady improvement of T-cell count with its continued use.
I am happly to hear you have a good T-cell/CD4 count. Stay in care and keep having your counts checked regularly. It is important to treat HIV before the CD4 count goes below 350. Carol
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