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Fuzeon vacation?
Oct 7, 2004
I am going on a short (4 day) vacation, and I would also like a vacation from taking the injections of Fuzeon. Is it advisable to miss up to 4 days of medication?
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Response from Mr. Kurtyka
Unless there are clear medical reasons to stop medications, most healthcare providers wouldn't want you to stop medications unless absolutely necessary. You didn't give me a lot of information, so I'll assume you are thinking about stopping Fuzeon for 4 days but taking your other meds. This would leave two meds on board to suppress your virus, and it might not be enough; thus, you risk developing resistance to these two agents (and possible cross-resistance to other meds).
If you were thinking about taking a holiday from all your meds, you need to consider that some drugs (like Sustiva and Emtriva) stay in your system longer than others. If you stop 3 drugs, say Sustiva, Fuzeon and AZT, you would need to work with your healthcare provider to figure out which ones to stop first, second and third. Because of Sustiva's long half-life, it is usually stopped first, followed by the other agents a day or two later. If you stopped them all on the same day, Sustiva drug levels remain fairly high for several days and you risk developing resistance to Sustiva.
Hope this helps. I don't recommend the drug holiday (obviously) but if you really have to do it, please get professional guidance related to your specific regimen.
--dk
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