BREAKING NEWS: People Don’t Like Taking Toxic Drugs for 20+ Years
Recommendation: Change WHO's language recommending treatment regimens to facilitate "clinical decision making" and "lifelong adherence"
An international group comprised of individuals from the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, Queen Mary University of London and five authors representing various research programs in South Africa published a suggestion for achieving “lifelong adherence” to anti-retroviral therapies (ART) in HIV-positive people who stop taking them or forget which drugs they’ve previously taken or whatever: Just put everyone on the same drug combo and when they get worse or stop taking the drugs or develop life-altering adverse effects, quietly shift them to another drug combo that may or may not be more tolerable.
The policy that WHO’s Global HIV Programme participant Marco Vitoria and colleagues think should be changed is “sequential lines of therapy,” a regimen that they noted began with cancer therapies in the 1970s. In this context, it simply means that if an AIDS or HIV-positive person “fails” the first treatment recommended for everyone—the “first-line” therapy—they then proceed to another drug or drug combo that’s considered “second-line” therapy, then to “third-line” therapy, and so on. (1)
Not terribly surprisingly, WHO’s “sequential lines of therapy” ART program hasn’t been very effective in much of the world.
However, these investigators noted, “As more efficacious, better-tolerated antiretroviral drugs with higher barriers to resistance have become available, the number of treatment options has been progressively rationalised towards combinations that are safe and appropriate to use across the majority of populations, including adults, children, and pregnant women.” (1)
Safe? Safe and appropriate, even for children and pregnant women?
“Since 2018, WHO guidelines for antiretroviral therapy (ART) recommended dolutegravir-based regimens across different populations,” Vitoria and colleagues reported. “The fixed-dose combination of tenofovir, lamivudine, and dolutegravir, the current standard of care worldwide for adults and adolescents, is highly effective and very well tolerated; substitutions due to side-effects, virological failure, and emergence of clinically relevant drug resistance are very low. As of December 2023, an estimated 77% of people with HIV worldwide were receiving ART, with more than 80% of these individuals being treated with tenofovir, lamivudine, and dolutegravir.” (1)
All is not well in the world of ART, though; as Vitoria et al. noted, “lifelong adherance is a challenge” since people tend to stop taking these toxic drugs from time to time. “For example, people who might have been receiving treatment for up to 20 years might not recall which regimens they previously received or might not report previous treatment to their care provider for fear of being badly judged for having a history of uninterrupted care,” Vitoria and team pointed out. (1)
Let’s take a brief look at the drugs in the cocktail that these researchers and others apparently believe people should take for their entire lives.
Dolutegravir, an Integrase Strand Transfer Inhibitor (INSTIs) according to the NIH, is described by Clinical Info HIV.gov as being able to cause “serious, life-threatening side effects. These include severe skin rash and allergic reactions, liver problems, and drug interactions.” (2)
In fact, if you develop a rash and any one of the following symptoms while taking dolutegravir, NIH suggests that you seek medical help immediately: general ill feeling; extreme tiredness; muscle or joint aches; fever; blistering or peeling skin; blisters or sores in your mouth; redness or swelling of the eyes (conjunctivitis); swelling of your face, lips, mouth, tongue, or throat; trouble breathing or swallowing. (2)
Dolutegravir is also hard on one’s liver, it seems, because people who’ve had any type of hepatitis or other liver disease should be especially aware of developing another set of symptoms: yellowing of your skin or the whites of your eyes (jaundice); dark-colored urine; light-colored bowel movements; loss of appetite for several days or longer; nausea or vomiting; itching; or pain, aching, or tenderness on the right side of the stomach/abdominal area. (2)
Lamivudine, a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI), can also cause “serious, life-threatening side effects,” again in the liver but also via a buildup of lactic acid in the blood. Call your doctor “right away” if you have any of these symptoms: weakness or tiredness; unusual muscle pain; shortness of breath or fast breathing; stomach pain with nausea and vomiting; cold or blue hands and feet; dizziness or lightheadedness; fast or abnormal heartbeat. (3)
You should also monitor the possibility of developing the liver problem-related symptoms associated with dolutegravir, noted above.
And then there’s tenofovir. You may recall tenofovir as being a component in the drug Truvada, the maker of which, Gilead Sciences, is the object of class action lawsuits brought by approximately 25,000 former patients who’ve had life-changing adverse effects from taking the drug. (4)
In June 2024, Gilead Science offered $40M to settle approximately 2600 cases in California, leaving about 25,000 active cases in federal and state courts unaddressed. In fact, as of March 2025, potential Truvada lawsuits continued to be accepted by some law firms involved in the litigation. (4)
On The Real AIDS Epidemic SubStack, Dr. Rebecca Culshaw Smith has chronicled the Truvada lawsuits and the plight of those severely damaged by the drug. Rather than repeating the dry words of NIH or drug makers’ web sites, here are some of the “adverse effects” suffered by people prescribed Truvada. You can read them all here. (5)
Made me have avascular necrosis & had to have bilateral hip replacements
I’m in Stage 3 kidney disease because of Truvada.
My teeth and jaw bone are a mess and I have to go on antibiotics to keep from having teeth infections on a regular basis. And I was supposed to have the last of my teeth removed and implants put in instead.
I don't have hiv but took this and it made my bones and angles rigid to point I said no more
I lost my right kidney and now I know why.
[In response to comments about Truvada not giving them any side effects} I was on it for six years. Then it attacked my kidneys. Be very careful.
2 hip replacements before the age of 50 and decimated teeth, no family history of arthritis or bone loss. I've had spurs removed 3 times, but I lost my hips and teeth. My litigation is in its 8th year. They knew, but didn't say a word. They reformulated, but the damage was already done to some of us...
I took this for years for HIV, Now I am dealing with major Liver issues.
Has the atripla settled, I took it for about 10 years and always had high liver readings…. Now as years have passed I have liver failure and chronic pancreatitis…. along with several other issues that I’m still working on figuring out…. like leg pain I’ve complained about for 15 years but now finally my doctors are listening to me now that I’m in my late 30’s go figure.
I have major teeth issues and also came down with toenail and nail fungus which took 4 years to get rid of from this medication I was on it for 2 years it has different side effects on every one
I have stage four kidney disease, low vitamin D, high cholesterol and would like to talk to someone please
lost my teeth, major heart problems, neuropathy and caused me to become diabetic even though I’ve never been overweight.
It made me so deathly sick. (5)
But never mind all that. Because patients continue to have treatment “failure” and because of the inadequate “adherence” to treatment regimens, Vitoria et al. advise physicians and organizations to use their suggested new terminology and classifications in making clinical decisions. (1)
“We created a classification framework for ART regimens used in programmatic settings to support clinical decision making and to guide strategic planning of ART programmes,” Vitoria and colleagues announced.
They continued:
“First, there are people on tenofovir, lamivudine, and dolutegravir with no previous treatment failure. Second, there are people who switched to TLD after previous treatment failure. For some of these people, virological failure was not documented by an HIV RNA test. Third, there are people who are on an alternative regimen because of tolerance issues. Finally, there is a small group of people who developed resistance to dolutegravir after a virological failure on tenofovir, lamivudine, and dolutegravir, and who have since been switched to protease inhibitor-based therapy. This fourth group is anticipated to increase in size over time.” (1) [Emphasis added.]
I would be truly surprised if this fourth group of patients developed only “resistance” to this witches’ brew of toxic chemicals—how many patients stopped taking the drugs because of their horrific side effects?
All of this, of course, derives from the original sin (following the original original sin that took place in the 1983 National Cancer Institute laboratory of Robert C. Gallo and collaborators): The Durban Declaration, published in Nature in 2000, in which the entire scientific establishment insisted that HIV and only HIV causes AIDS. (6)
Instead of reworking meaningless characterizations of toxic treatment programs, perhaps the WHO and everyone else concerned with the world of AIDS should take a second look at HIV, why killing it doesn’t stop the disease from progressing, and come to the realization that the failures in AIDS treatments result from targeting the wrong culprit.
To learn more about the Truvada disaster and the HIV debacle, check out Rebecca’s book: Rebecca V. Culshaw, with Foreword by Neenyah Ostrom. The Real AIDS Epidemic: How the Tragic HIV Mistake Threatens Us All. Skyhorse, March 28, 2023.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Marco Vitoria, Graeme Meintjesb, Nathan Forda, Lisa Frigatif, Nandita Sugandhia, Alexandra Calmy. “Retiring the language of first-line and second-line ART.” The Lancet. June 5, 2025. DOI: 10.1016/S2352-3018(25)00137-7 External Link
2. Drug Database: Dolutegravir. Clinical Info HIV.gov. https://clinicalinfo.hiv.gov/en/drugs/dolutegravir/patient#dr2
3. Drug Database: Lamivudine. Clinical Info HIV.gov. https://clinicalinfo.hiv.gov/en/drugs/lamivudine/patient#dr2
4. “Truvada Lawsuits.” Drugwatch. https://www.drugwatch.com/tenofovir-disoproxil-fumarate/lawsuits/
5. Rebecca Culshaw Smith. “Comments About Truvada, from Truvada Users.” The Real AIDS Epidemic, January 27, 2025.
6. “The Durban Declaration.” Nature 406, 15-16. July 6, 2000.