NHS to roll out ‘life-saving’ meds to combat drug-resistant HIV
Lenacapavir will be offered on the NHS (Getty Images)
The NHS is going to prescribe a new medication to treat the minority of patients living with a drug-resistant strain of HIV, in a landmark move.
Around 100,000 people have HIV in England. There is currently no cure, though the vast majority can manage the virus with medication which hugely reduces the viral load to an undetectable level, which means they cannot pass it on. For a minority, though, the virus has mutated and become resistant to medication readily offered.
Now, the drug Lenacapavir will be offered to those at risk in the coming weeks – reportedly 92 eligible patients. That number is expected to rise to around 300 over the next three years.
One woman told the Mirror that the medication has saved her life.
She explained that she had been born with HIV and had tried a number of different medications, but had a fear of swallowing large tablets and eventually grew resistance to more readily available drugs. It saw her regularly admitted to hospital with a dangerously low immune system and related complications.
“Lenacapavir has been life saving for me,” she said, now living with a restore immune system and undetectable levels. “Before this medication, I was really unwell. Now I am working full time and am living a normal life. I’m not worried anymore and feel a lot happier.”
The woman shared praise for the NHS that it will be offered to people like her with a resistant form of HIV, adding: “It can make all the difference.”
How the new medication will work
Eligible patients will take a tablet for two days, followed by another on day eight.
Afterwards, they will have two injections, before having an injection every six months.
Health Minister Baroness Merron said the “landmark treatment will totally transform” the lives of those living with a drug-resistant HIV. Merron added that the Government is “determined to end new HIV transmissions by 2030”.
National AIDS Trust director Daniel Fluskey said: “This is a huge decision for people who need life-saving treatment and takes us a step closer to ensuring that no one dies from AIDS-related illnesses here in the UK.
“Over years too many people have lost loved ones, family, and friends because of a lack of access to medicine and the harm caused by stigma, prejudice, and discrimination. So when a new life-saving treatment is available it must get to the people who need it.”
It’s reported that around 100 people each year in England may need the new drug.
NHS England director for specialised commissioning John Stewart said: “This trailblazing new drug, approved for the first time by the NHS, is offering a lifelines to those people for whom options are limited, as conventional HIV treatments do not work. And it gives them the opportunity to live a normal, healthy and long life.”
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