HIV Medicines and Cholesterol... Video Transcript

Webcast Transcript

So sometimes we cannot use some protease inhibitors and some statin medications.

ANNOUNCER: When lipids levels can not be adequately controlled with lifestyle changes or drugs, switching antiretroviral medications is sometimes an option.

Luckily, that can often be done without interfering with the course of HIV treatment.

KATHLEEN SQUIRES, MD: While we use this strategy we really need to be assured that the drugs that the patients are currently on are working, that we have the virus under very tight control and then switching to another agent should not be a problem. And in fact, switching studies have been done which have demonstrated that you can switch drugs with a patient who has good control of viral replication.

ANNOUNCER: Concern today, over lipid levels in people with HIV, in part reflects good news, that HIV drugs now can be very effective.

EDWIN DEJESUS, MD: Now that patients are living longer, the potential complications of having an elevated triglyceride and cholesterol over time, over five years, ten years or fifteen years, becomes something that we need to consider.

ANNOUNCER: Luckily for most people with HIV, there are good strategies to lower these lipids levels, whether it's simple changes in diet and exercise, the use of lipid-reducing drugs, or using antiretrovirals less likely to cause the problem.

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