New drugs help ease AIDS/HIV patients' pains

Debbie A. Lubis The Jakarta Post Jakarta

AIDS patients and those infected by the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) will no longer be preoccupied by anxiety and can go about their daily lives without any pain from the fatal disease thanks to affordable modified drugs now available in pharmacies and clinics in the country.

Taking the pills, tablets or syrup, mostly imported from India, Europe and the United States, the patients will no longer feel pain and their bodies will not so easily be infected by other diseases related to the virus.

"Despite neither healing nor prolonging life, the new drug products can help HIV/AIDS patients go about their daily activities calmly and without any pain," Zubairi Djoerban, an internist at the special study group on HIV/AIDS at the medical faculty of the University of Indonesia said in a seminar on HIV/AIDS here on Saturday.

He said that the medicine, Antiretroviral (ART), was a combination of three kinds of drug that fought the replication of the HIV virus in the body and prevented the breakdown of the body's immune system.

"Patients with HIV/AIDS are not easily exposed to infection anymore and they can manage themselves without any pain because the medicine maintains their immunity and eases their pain," he said in a seminar on AIDS/HIV drugs here on Saturday.

He said that according to its characteristics, the virus made patients susceptible to diseases like TBC, bacterial infections, pneumonia or other diseases that could lead to death. "The medicine eliminates the amount of virus in the body and returns its immunity almost to normal so it is able to fight any virus or bacteria," he said.

Asked about the price of the medicine, he said a patient would need Rp 1,050,000 to purchase a month's supply of the India- produced generic drugs, and the Indian products were cheaper than those imported from Europe.

The number of people infected by the disease has reached 80,000 to 120,000, most of whom are in Jakarta, East Java, Bali, Riau and Papua. So far, The disease has claimed 2,880 lives.

Kurniawan Rachmadi, another speaker in the seminar, said that an ideal combination of antiretroviral drugs is zidovudine (AZT), lamivudine (3TC) and nelfivanir. However, he offered three alternative antiretroviral drug cocktails: AZT with 3TC and nevirapin, AZT with 3TC only, or Videx with Zerit.

He said that the side effects of the medicine on certain patients were quite disturbing. "AZT my cause anemia while Videx can often cause a nerve disorder (loss of sensation)," he said.

He added that the side-effects mostly affected patients in the advanced stages of HIV/AIDS or those who also suffered from Hepatitis C, tuberculosis (TBC), or were infected by bacteria.

He said that in this case, doctors should decide which one of the diseases should be treated as a priority.