Govt defends new ARV regimen

Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter
Benefits of the new fixed dose antiretroviral treatment given to people living with HIV and Aids far outweigh its disadvantages, a senior health official has said.

Responding to concerns by people living with HIV and Aids that the Efavirenz-based ARV combination had serious side effects, deputy director for STIs and HIV programme in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Tsitsi Apollo maintained that with available medicines, that combination was the best.

“All medicines have side effects. Even the aspirin that we all know, ibuprofen, you name it, they all have side effects – so are the ARVs that we are talking about,” she said.

Dr Apollo said in view of these side effects, Government through the National Medicine and Therapeutics Policy Advisory Committee (NMTPAC), constantly reviews and adopts better medicines that come on board, medicines that are safe, more tolerable to users and effective in suppressing HIV.

“When they come on board, we review the science, studies, feasibility of introducing and rolling it out to the people among other issues,” she said.

She said Zimbabwe started its ARV roll-out programme with Nevirapine-based combination also known as Stalanev in 2004, which was then replaced with Efavirenz because of its side effects which were worse compared to those experienced by people on Nevirapine combination.

She said according to statistics from the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe and reports from people living with HIV and Aids, people experiencing side effects from the new fixed dose therapy accounted for about only 2 percent of all those on that treatment.

Dr Apollo said those that experience side effects are switched to another combination on the range of medicines available in the country.

“What we know with Efavirenz is that it affects the central nervous system such that one has sleep disturbances, hallucinations, headache and confusion, but these normally lapse after the first three weeks. But should these symptoms continue, we switch the patient to other existing drug combinations,” she said.

Dr Apollo said other benefits of Efavirenz were that it is just one pill taken daily compared to other combinations where one has to take at least two tablets.

She said with the phased out Stalanev, people especially women with a higher CD4 count ended up having problems with their liver. “So, in terms of combinations, Nevirapine-based combination also known as (Stalanev) is the worst culprit and more people reported serious side effects compared to Efavirenz.

“So, with medicines available so far, benefits of the current regimen of Efavirenz far outweigh its disadvantages,” she said.

Government moved from Nevirapine-based combination to Efavirenz at the beginning of the year. According to national statistics, about 64 percent of the estimated 1,6 million living with HIV and Aids are on treatment.

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