Last year I was diagnosed with BPV. I{ve been 10 years on Sustiva and I do belief those are side affects. I blacked out in September and also on Dec 15th, this time with a nasty bloody fall. I have to switch to some other med besides ATRIPLA. Would You help me in choosing?. Thanks so much

Hi,

Have you been having the "dizziness" and vertigo all this time? It is unusual for these symptoms to start after 10 years if it is Sustiva related. Sustiva can certainly make these kinds of symptoms worse.

Your substitute combo will depend on a couple of things:

Was this your first combo?

If not, had there been any viral failure to prior treatments?

Also, was there any "baseline" drug resistance (which means resistance that was present before you started meds which may have been acquired at the time of transmission)? This would have shown up on a pre-treatment genotype test.

If all above is negative, that is, first treatment with no prior or pre-existing drug resistance or treatment breakthrough, then you have many options. This may include other once-a-day treatments, such as Complera, or boosted PIs (Norvir/Reyataz or Norvir/Preszista) along with truvada, or treatment with an Integrase Inhibitor (such as truvada+ Isentress).

Discuss which option fits best for you with your doc.

Joe