Dear Drs. My Dr. changed my meds from Atripla (which wasn't working) to Kaletra and Viread. Isn't this only 2 meds? I have enough Atripla to take until my next Dr. visit but was worried that the Sustiva part could lower the Kaletra too much to make it ineffective. I know the Atripla has viread in it and something else. Thanks very much

Atripla contains tenofovir+FTC+efavirenz

Truvada contains tenofovir+FTC

Kaletra contains lopinavir+ritonavir

All this combining can make things confusing.

As far as brand names go, Viread is tenofovir, Sustiva is efavirenz, FTC is Emtriva.

It does not make complete sense to go from Atripla to Viread + Kaletra. As you guessed, all your doc did was add Kaletra and drop the efavirenz and FTC. It could be that the results of resistance tests guided this decision but I would still have considered a more radical switch such as adding the Kaletra, starting Truvada and adding AZT. This would add a new powerful drug (Kaletra), continue the tenofovir he or she thinks will still work (its in the Truvada), keep FTC around (also in Truvada) as resistance to this drug can actually inhibit the virus from replicating and add the AZT to cover in case there is resistance to tenofovir not detected by the resistance test.

Complicated, I know. Ask your doc about using tenofovir and Kaletra alone. I would absolutely not continue Atripla along with your new combo.

DW