I am living in Sydney, Australia. A city I believe has one of the best HIV/AIDS systems in the world. I am also seeing a Professor in Immunology and a highly renowned General Practitoner.

However, over the past 6 months I have tried the drugs Retonovir, Kaletra and Nevirapine. In all cases within 12 hours of taking them I have developed a full rash, fever, swelling in the face and enlarged Lymph Nodes. All symptoms subside 24 hours later.

I have also had Efaverinz and D4T removed from my list of available drugs.

They all seem at a loss to the cause and I thought I would ask you for any thoughts you might have? Is there some common element here?

Many thanks, Nicholas

Nevirapine commonly causes a skin rash (also common with Sustiva which is a drug from the same family). Ritonavir usually is not taken with Kaletra (which already has ritonavir in it) unless there is evidence of resistant virus or documented lower than expected plasma levels of lopinavir. There could be a genetic cause that may be hard to nail down. Getting blood levels of the key drugs involved might be worthwhile to see if the doses are a good fit for you. I know I see some patients who have serious side effects to a variety of HIV meds without an obvious explanation (fortunately that is not very common). KH