Write a Comment
14 Comments
I started taking isentress in april. I have gone from 30 to 415 t-cells. My viral load was undetectable at three weeks. I have never taken a medicine in 17 yrs that has given me less side effects
even though this is wonderful news, people like myself who have been tested less then a year may run to their doctors and want to be put on this and would want to abandon what is currently working for them.
Brian, Patricia and KR - the main side effects seen so far are diarrhea, nausea & headache and elevations of a muscle enzyme—creatine kinase. If you look up Isentress under our "Drugs" page, you'll find more info. In terms of the blood/brain barrier, at an FDA hearing there were statements that it does cross the blood/brain barrier, but information about CNS concentrations have not been widely published. Hope this helps!
Awesome news....what kind of side effects are commonly seen?
Yes this is a wonderful new option. But does anyone other than me not notice that one week before Merck announced this new drug they declared their vaccine they have been working on for many years which from all un-official reports was verry promising was suddenly declared A failure.
I've been taking this as a study drug for about 3 months now. Like Sharp I have never had an undetectable viral load, and within the first 30 days the decrease was unbelievable. The VL dropped over 1 mil. For the first I was almost able to breathe a sigh of relief. I have a doc appt next week to hear the results of my latest labs and hope to hear that FINALLY I have reached my goal of being undetectable. I'm grateful for Merck & everyone who made this possible.
Let us not forget about educating our communities about HIV.
Matt
re KR from Atlanta, Isentress does not cross the blood-brain barrier according to Merck.
December 23, 2007 • Chicago