Eviplera to Stribild

Today I am making the change from Eviplera to a newer drug which is four-in-one called Stribild. It is made up of four drugs:

  • elvitegravir
    which is a type of antiretroviral called an integrase inhibitor;
  • conicistat
    a “pharmacokinetic enhancer” which boosts levels of elvitegravir within the body, but has no activity against HIV;
  • emtricitabine and
  • tenofovir disoproxil
    which are both antiretrovirals known as nucleotide/nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) or “nukes”.

A problem I had with taking Eviplera was that I kept failing to get the calorific quantity of food I needed with it, but Stribild has the benefit that it has no specific type or amount of food needed. The suggestion is to have it with a snack, or within 30 minutes of a main meal.

Blood results

As I tweeted earlier (from the clinic):

the results from my bloods done on 24 November 2015 were that my CD4 count was 333, and my Viral Load continues to be undetectable. Today the consultant got my Viral Load rechecked as well as a couple of other tests (which I cannot remember) and I have another appointment on 5 January 2016. So it will still be within Christmas! Hurrah!