Availability of Truvada

[Maxxy]

Hint ---- write your needs on a piece of paper and stand looking helpless and an assistant will take pity on you.

As a further thought, if you're shopping anywhere for something unusual --- write it down ----- the Thai assistant may not understand your accent or pronunciation.
Even better, if you've got an example of the product, take a photo of it on your smartphone. I tried miming 'fence posts' once!

And once spent ages in a taxi trying to communicate Soi Convent ----- eventually, the driver twigged and taught me how to pronounce Convent correctly.

Cheers, will see if I can print out a pic of a packet that may help out.

[francois]

Anyone have an idea of cost of Truvada at this pharmacy?

[firecat69]

6 months ago it was 2800 baht per bottle of 30 pills.

[bruce_nyc]

I could google it. ...... but for the benefit of others...

What is Truvada for?

Ok. Googled it.

"Tenofovir/emtricitabine (Truvada) is a fixed-dose combination of two antiretroviral drugs used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS."

Can Thailand pharmacy suppliers be trusted for quality standards for such an important use case....?

My instinct would tell me to get it in your home country if at all possible.

[firecat69]

Too many people think that because they walk into all 1 shop pharmacies on every corner and find prices vary that they must be dealing in fake products. Also you did not do much of a google search or read all the posts in other threads that Truvada is being used by some because of its proven ability to prevent HIV.

This particular pharmacy mentioned by me and others on this Forum is one of the biggest Pharmacies if not the biggest in Bangkok.

If you go to Bumrungrad , BNH etc (best hospitals in BKK) and don't want to pay the exorbitant prices for drugs in the Hospital pharmacy and you ask the DR to give you a recommendation , a great % will sent you to this Pharmacy. The Gold Standard in BKK

[loke]

Are there any side effects , and will they protect healthy people without HIV or is it just a waste of money ?

[Patanawet]

I've just been to Chula Phesaj pharmacy and asked the price for you.
It's gone down a little to 2,500 since Firecat was there 6 months ago.

Just as a matter of interest, I called in at Fascino (Thailand wide chain of pharmacies) and they'd never heard of it. After searching in the computer the pharmacist said "not allow in Thailand".

[bruce_nyc]

That's another question.

They seem to sell things in Thailand that are not even legal in Thailand. How can we be assured of its quality? ..... and even of its source or origin?

[lonelywombat]

Truvada is getting a lot of bad publicity here ,Is it really safe. Are people aware of the side effects. It is supposed to be sold here as a treatment for people with HIV not as a prevention.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/campa ... jy1u8.html

Campaign encourages gay men to have unprotected sex in attempt to boost sales of anti-HIV drug

DateSeptember 30, 2015
Beau Donelly, Anna Whitelaw


Sexual health advocate Steve Spencer, who imports PrEP from overseas. PrEP effectively blocks HIV transmission when taken daily.
A guerrilla advertising campaign is encouraging gay men to have unprotected sex to promote a non-approved drug that combats HIV infection.

Large posters have been put up across Melbourne, prominently featuring a blue pill and the text: "YOU CAN F*** RAW. PrEP WORKS. NO MORE HIV."

A little-known activist group is behind the explicit message promoting condomless sex when using PrEP, an antiviral drug dubbed the HIV contraceptive that is readily available overseas but not in Australia.


Health experts have slammed the controversial ads for failing to promote safe sex and the importance of regular health screening, branding them "extremely unhelpful" and "completely wrong".

Sold as Truvada, PrEP is proven highly effective at blocking HIV transmission when taken daily. It is funded by the Australian government as a treatment for people with HIV, but not as a prevention. The drug is currently before the Therapeutic Goods Administration, but if approved is unlikely to be available through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for at least another 12 months.

Trials in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland have shown promising results so far, with no new HIV infections among hundreds of participants. And gay men are already ordering the drug online from overseas.

The Australasian Society for HIV Medicine said while people were frustrated they could not access PrEP locally, the campaign's message had been lost.

"It's a step too far," chief executive Levinia Crooks said. "My concern is they get misconstrued in the general population and also among people who are at high risk of HIV.

"You don't just get HIV when you have unprotected sex, you could also get syphilis, gonorrhea, a number of other STIs."

University of Melbourne Professor Sharon Lewin, HIV specialist and head of Doherty Institute, said the posters sent the wrong message. "There's no doubt we have good evidence that PrEP works to prevent you getting HIV. But the studies have shown that it only works when there's no change in the background level of condom use," she said.

"The message here is not that you no longer need condoms. The message is there is an additional layer of protection now that men can now use on top of their condom use."

The Victorian AIDS Council and Living Positive Victoria said there were concerns about the inflammatory language used in the campaign and its potential to stigmatise gay sex and people with HIV.

But they said the campaign was evidence of growing demand for the drug and showed there was a need for it to be made available in Australia.

The Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations has previously called on the federal government to fast track availability of PrEP amid warnings that delays are leading to avoidable HIV transmissions.

Collingwood student Steve Spencer is one of many gay men importing the generic brand of PrEP from India with the help of a prescription from his GP. He started taking a daily course of the drug earlier this year after missing out on a spot in the Victorian clinical trials.

"I realised my risk of HIV transmission was too high to ignore so taking control of my sexual health through the use of PrEP became a huge priority," the 23-year-old said.

For Mr Spencer, PrEP is not a substitute for condoms, but it gives him peace of mind.

"During sex, alcohol and other drugs can fog your ability to rely on condoms, or the condom could fail," he said. "As a gay man, seeing what the HIV epidemic has done to our community, to have this freedom from fear is incredible."

Many LGBT organisations support the use of the drug, arguing that some people will have unprotected sex anyway and that those who avoid getting tested due to the fear of being HIV positive present a greater risk to public health.

The Australasian Society for HIV Medicine's guidelines recommend only high-risk groups have access to PrEP, such as people in relationships with someone who has HIV, gay men who have multiple partners and people who do not use condoms.

Karen Price, acting chief executive of HIV prevention and LGBTI health group ACON, said she was disappointed the message that could be taken away from the campaign was that gay men were irresponsible.

"That's not our experience of gay men and how they feel about HIV," she said. "There is an element of guerilla advocacy and I think it comes from a place of wanting to up the ante in the discussion."

Activist group SEEITCLEARLY2020, behind the campaign, said it was aiming to promote the "most powerful tool" to combat HIV. "The reality is that HIV will continue to be transmitted by raw sex if we do not make PrEP fully accessible to Australians," it said in a statement.

Gilead Sciences, which manufactures Truvada, said it had nothing to do with the posters.

"Gilead supports Truvada for PrEP as an important HIV prevention tool if used as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy among certain high-risk populations. However, until it is approved by the TGA, Gilead does not support its off-label use in Australia," a spokeswoman said.

[Maxxy]

Well the idea is to use it along with other measures, condoms are one of those measures but they can split. I was also told that short term use (like for a trip to Thailand, before and after) doesn't have as much side effects as long term use