We are from Ecuador. Some of people living with HIV/AIDS take VIRACEPT from the Government hospital as part of their antiretroviral therapy. They have not getting those for some weeks. But the Manager of the AIDS National Program from Ecuador said the people can be suspend the VIRACEPT for one month without problems. Please answer if this is true. We are worry in Ecuador because they are not taking the complete therapy at this moment. Thanks for your answer.

Thanks for your question.

It is probably ok to suspend treatment for some period of time without any significant consequences. That said, I would want to stress that it is NOT ok to just suspend the nelfinavir (Viracept) part of the therapy, but rather the safest way to discontinue medications is to stop all antiretroviral medications together.

To only stop the nelfinavir would mean that a patient taking a three-drug cocktail would continue on dual nucleoside therapy, a recipie for treatment failure and drug resistance.

Please follow up with how this is being done in your country. I would be very happy to discuss this further with your local doctors.

Buenos suerte, BY