By Jesse Brooks

Imagine having to take five to nine pills a day to live. Imagine side effects of nausea, diarrhea and then being offered more medication to counteract those side effects.

That was the life of people living with HIV in the early days of HIV treatment almost 30 years ago. Treatment and attitudes have changed a lot over those years.

Gone is the stigma that came with the disease for many as well as the omnipresent pill containers, or even the constant burden of having to take medication daily. What was unimaginable then is reality now — taking an injection once a month to control the disease.

A revolutionary game changer of a long-acting injectable HIV medication is finally available for treatment. The treatment, a combination of two drugs, will be administered by a healthcare provider once a month. Already approved and used in Europe beginning in October 2020, the treatment was approved in the U.S. in January 2021.

‘Adherent treatment’ has been the key for persons to reach viral suppression, rendering them practically incapable of transmitting HIV through sex. (Sex without barriers is the highest transmission route of HIV.)

The concept is called U = U, Undetectable equals Untransmittable. It all leads to fewer people spreading HIV, helping to get to a global goal of no new transmissions.

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Although the injectable treatment is not for every person living with HIV, it is the answer for so many who struggle with adherence which can lead to a possibility of becoming resistant to the medication and failed treatment, thus unable to control their HIV replication.

Darrell Ferrell, a 60-year-old African American substance abuse counselor who was diagnosed with HIV in September 1991, is considered a long-term survivor. Ferrell will be the first patient to receive the monthly injectable at his Lifelong clinic, in Oakland.

Ferrell says he was prescribed medication immediately upon his initial diagnosis in 1991, but at the time was in denial and afraid as he saw others take the early regimens and still die.

In later years, he started a regimen but didn’t always adhere to it, and at one time became resistant to the medication he was taking. He eventually started a different regimen of one pill a day, but always was challenged with staying adherent.

“About six months ago, my physician, Dr. Ortiz, approached me,” Ferrell said. Ortiz was concerned about Ferrell’s struggle with adherence. “Because of my confidence in my doctor, I said ‘yes’ to the injection regimen.”

For 28 days, he had to take the medication orally and received his first injection early this month. “The only side effects I had was some anxiety and soreness at the injection site that has since gone away,” Ferrell said. He looks forward to a life of taking fewer pills for his health, since he lives with other co-morbidities that require medication. The worry of adhering to HIV regimen is now gone.

If you live with HIV and are having challenges, talk to your care provider. Take the pill burden away and live until there’s a cure.

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