Just two years ago, UNAIDS announced a window of opportunity to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 by fast-tracking towards meeting the 90-90-90 Target. There was tempered optimism this ambitious goal was within reach. Now, the international HIV community is experiencing a sense of urgency: complacency is moving us perilously close to an HIV rebound. […]
Are we close to the end of AIDS? Read More »
This article was originally published as a Pharmacovigilance Initiative Safety Alert by the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/Aids on June 6, 2017. Patient safety concern Drug interactions between antiretroviral drugs and other medications can result in loss of therapeutic efficacy or drug toxicity. Selected proton pump inhibitors and inhaled corticosteroids recently became available
Guest Post: Antiretroviral Drug Interactions with Non-Prescription Medications Read More »
June 2017 – Drug interactions between antiretroviral drugs and other medications can result in loss of therapeutic efficacy or drug toxicity. Selected proton pump inhibitors and inhaled corticosteroids recently became available as non-prescription products in BC. These, and other non-prescription medications, can have clinically important interactions with certain antiretroviral drugs. This bulletin summarizes clinically important
SAFETY UPDATE: Antiretroviral drug interactions with non-prescription medications Read More »
September 17, 2012 – The Pharmacovigilance Program at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS has received reports of patients seeing nevirapine 400 mg XR (extended release) tablets or tablet fragments in their feces (stools). In BC, approximately 4% of patients treated with nevirapine XR have reported seeing tablet remnants in their stool. Nevirapine 400
SAFETY UPDATE: Nevirapine 400 mg XR (Viramune XR™) tablet remnants in feces Read More »
June 6, 2011 – The Pharmacovigilance Program at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS has reviewed the following incident: On May 11, 2011, Janssen Inc. issued an advisory that some bottles of darunavir (Prezista TM) 600 mg tablets in Lot # ALZ0J00 might have an uncharacteristic “musty” or “mouldy” odour caused by trace quantities
SAFETY ALERT: DARUNAVIR (PREZISTA TM) Read More »
June, 2010 – The Pharmacovigilance Program at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS has received four reports of suspected drug interaction between ritonavir and triamcinolone acetonide intra-articular injection leading to symptoms of corticosteroid excess (Cushingoid features) and adrenal suppression. The affected patients were HIV-infected adults whose antiretroviral therapy included a protease inhibitor boosted with
SAFETY ALERT: RITONAVIR AND INTRA-ARTICULAR TRIMCINOLONE ACETONIDE INJECTION Read More »
July, 2009 – The Pharmacovigilance Initiative at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS received a report of an HLA-B*5701 positive patient who had tolerated long term abacavir therapy, discontinued antiretroviral drugs for several months, then developed a diffuse rash, respiratory distress and fever shortly after re-initiating an abacavir-containing regimen. The symptoms and rapid onset were
SAFETY WARNING: ABACAVIR USE IN HLA-B*5701 POSITIVE PATIENTS AND UNTESTED PATIENTS Read More »
During the Canada Post strike announced September 25, 2025, the following measures will be undertaken to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.
During the Canada Post strike, we recommend that documents be faxed or couriered to our sites, versus utilization of regular mail service
The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
For more details and example reports, please click on the button below
