HI I HAVE BEEN ON TRUVADA AND KALETRA FOR THE LAST 5YRS,MY CD4 IS 388 THE HIGHEST YET AND UNDETECTABLE, I HAVE IN THE LAST YR OF 2010 HAD 2 TOTAL HIP REPLACEMENTS AND MY DOC HAS NOW TAKEN ME OFF TRUVADA ONTO 2KALETRA MORNING 2 EVENING,I AM VERY WORRIED HAS THESE WERE THE PILLS WHICH SAVED MY LIFE AND NOW TO ONLY TAKE KALETRA IS THAT WISE? ALSO DID THE TRUVADA PLAY A BIG ROLE IN MY AVASCULAR NECROSIS AND HIP OPS? PLEASE AN ANSWER WOULD BE OF GREAT HELP HAS I HAVE ASKED VARIOUS AND NO REPLY? EAGERLY AWAITING SOME INFO ON THIS THANX MARK

Hello Mark and thanks for your post.

The subject of how many medications are necessary and boosted PI monotherapy have garnered a lot of attention in the past years. There are data that suggest that boosted protease inhibitor treatment (like Kaletra) alone is very potent and could carry the day in special circumstances. On the other hand, there remain concerns that Kaletra-alone therapy might increase the risk, even modestly, of treatment failure and drug resistance.

In this view, your situation deserves a few comments. First, I'm saddened to hear that you have avascular necrosis of the hip- an uncommon complication that can have significant implications for quality of life. While there are associations between the tenofovir part of Truvada and decreased bone mineral density (diseases like osteoporosis), there isn't to my knowledge, any studies that link tenofovir to AVN. (or another way of saying this is that AVN and osteoporosis are two different diseases) As such, it's not clear to me what the justification for stopping the Truvada was; the more common reason would be for issues related to kidney health.

If there was a desire (for any reason) to stop the Truvada, I would have considered replacing the Truvada with an alternative NRTI combination such as abacavir/lamivudine (Epzicom, Kivexa) for example.

I'd make sure that you have a conversation with your HIV specialist regarding his or her recommendations.

Best of health to you, BY