Side Effects and HIV medications

How do you cope with diarrhea? HIV medications come with side effects, and diarrhea is a common and unpleasant side effect of many HIV meds. One way to manage this is through a BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast). What other side effects are you experiencing and how have you been managing them? Do you ever think about stopping your meds because of unpleasant side effects?

Remembering to Take Medications?

HIV medications – not something to forget… but people do miss taking them: Side effects, busy schedules, drug fatigue, etc. But, skip too many and you can develop resistance – the drugs won’t work. Then, you have to switch to other HIV drugs. How do folks remember? Pill boxes? Alarm reminders? We’ve heard that “HIV drugs suck, but HIV sucks worse.” How do you remember taking your drugs?

HIV/AIDS & Funding

Where is AIDS funding going? In 2004, the government announced an increase of funding to the national HIV/AIDS strategy, however little of that funding has even shown up at community based AIDS organizations. As a result, these organizations, which provide direct services to PWAs, have experienced significant hardships in the past couple of years. Many have had to cut services and programs which has impacted the health and well-being of persons living with HIV. BCPWA has joined forces with AIDS service organizations across the country to lobby members of parliament to pressure the federal government to meet its commitment to improve services for people living with HIV/AIDS. What do you think about this? What can you do?

Housing, Security and HIV

Lack of affordable housing is a big issue in Vancouver. Though there are condos being built just about everywhere, most are unaffordable. Rent is ever increasing as is the cost of living (food/grocery prices are on the rise now too). A number of studies suggest that a high percentage of people living with HIV are also living in poverty, often on the streets. One thing is for sure, for those living in the lower income brackets, the rising cost of living in Vancouver is becoming increasingly challenging. How can a person living with HIV/AIDS even think about their well being when they lack basic needs, such as affordable housing and adequate food? What are our priorities these days? What are your thoughts on this important issue? Is anyone doing anything about this?

Your Testing in the United States?

How do you feel about having your blood work sent to the United States?

Maraviroc is a new HIV drug that will soon be made available. However, in order to qualify for this drug, you will need to do something called a tropism test. The tropism test will check to see if you have R5 or R4 receptors on your CD4 cells as Maraviroc will only work on R5 receptors (to prevent the virus from attaching to the CD4 cell). Right now, this test can only be conducted in California, as Canada doesn’t have this technology. Does having your blood sent to the States worry you? What are the issues and concerns, if any?

Is it Age or HIV....?

Is it age or is it HIV? As people with HIV are now living longer, treatment of HIV has become more complex. Health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and depression can be attributed to both HIV and age. Some drug companies may like us to think aging causes some of these health conditions in order to minimize the associated side effects of their drugs. What do you think? What do you think about as you're aging with HIV?

HIV Drugs - Start Early or Later......?

Do you remember the days when “hit hard hit early” were the norm. It wasn’t that long ago that HIV-positive individuals were told to start taking HIV medications right away. Due to side effects and resistance, we re-examined this and learned that you didn’t need to start drugs so quickly. Now the trend seems to be to start earlier again. There are a lot of new drugs coming down the pipe, however we still don’t know what the long term side effects will be from these drugs. There’s also a theory that expanding access to antiretrovirals may help curb the growth of the HIV epidemic (by getting everyone undetectable). A lot of research going on, but are we revisiting the past? Two steps forward, one step back? What do you think about all of this?