Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said Guyana quit using the AIDS drug, stavudine several years ago and is offering a drug regime which is similar to the treatment available in developed countries.
He said the drug regime changes after a period of time to avoid resistance, but pointed out that a decision would be taken to implement a new regime as drugs become available. Currently Guyana uses a triple combination therapy which includes the drugs, trudava [2 drugs] and efavirenz.
The World Health Oganisation (WHO) has urged countries to phase out the use of stavudine in new guidelines issued on Monday last, citing “long-term, irreversible” side-effects in HIV patients including wasting and a nerve disorder.
Ramsammy said that prior to the period when Guyana used stavudine there were no reports of issues related to the drug.
He stressed that the regime changed overtime because of concerns about drug resistance.
According to a Reuters report, the WHO recommended “that countries progressively phase out the use of stavudine as a preferred first-line therapy option and move to less toxic alternatives such as zidovudine (AZT) or tenofovir (TDF) which are “equally effective alternatives.”
Stavudine, widely available in developing countries as a first-line therapy, is relatively cheap and easy to use, according to the United Nations agency. But it causes a nerve disorder leading to numbness and burning pain in the hands and feet, and loss of body fat known as lipoatrophy or wasting, it said, conditions that are “disabling and disfiguring,” the Reuter report said.