Side-effects of HIV Drugs: Serious/acute ·
Acute side effects are those rare dangerous ones that need medical attention. Any drug can cause them and they generally fall into two categories: severe skin allergies and damage to the liver. These are rare but need urgent attention if they happen.
Two particular drugs are associated with specific acute side effects. The drug abacavir (found in Ziagen, Kivexa and Trizivir) causes a specific hypersensitivity reaction usually featuring a skin rash and fever and sometimes gut problems and fluey symptoms. Your doctor will advise you that if you are on this drug you should go back to the clinic immediately if you develop such a rash. However, it is unusual these days, since doctors started using a genetic test to predict whether patients are likely to get this reaction and not giving it to people who are.
The drug nevirapine (Viramune) can also cause both a severe rash or liver failure. For this reason it is given as a half-dose in the first two weeks of therapy while the body gets used to it. It should never be given as a new therapy to women with CD4 counts over 250 or men with CD4 counts over 400 (though it is fine to keep taking it if your CD4s rise over this figure).
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