Hello, i overheard from a friend who’s currently living in Uk. He told me there’s no TAF in uk.only TDF, is it accurate? I’m going there in January, but I can’t just switch my meds, I would like to know if anyone’s who’s living in Uk have successfully purchased TAF from hospital?
Also another genuine question, for frdz who are on anti virus meds also have to travel/live in another country; how do we deal with the time difference? Like for example I take my meds everyday at 11AM China time, and I’m going to Uk which is 7 hours behind our time; when I go to Uk should I start take meds on UK 11Am time? Would my body sense the difference? Plz if someone has answer for this I would love to hear your voice. Thank you!
I can understand your concern @Limin . Since the time difference betwen China and UK is 7hrs., it means everytime you take your TAF at 11a.m China time, you are invariably taking it at 4.a.m UK time. Since it’s a daily pill (everyn24hrs.), it then means that every 4.am uk time, you should take your pill.
@Limin, with my experiences in the past, I think it doesn’t have to be exact 24 hrs from the previous one. I’m always taking my pill after the evening meal every day and when I traveled I didn’t have the meal at the same time and sometimes it was about 3 or 4 hours later. I always make a note on the bottle with the date of the last pill and in couple times I completely forgot taking the pill and didn’t find down until the bottle was almost empty. One time I desired to change the time of taking the pill to the morning, so I delayed 12hrs until the next morning. But, I felt like dizzy during the morning, so in couple days later I switched back to the evening time which was 12 hrs earlier. After all of those, I was still OK.
In your case, I think it would be OK to take your pill at 7 or 8am UK time, so you don’t have to get up at 4 clock in the morning, taking the pill and go back to bed.
Switching from TAF to TDF or even ETV shouldn’t cause an issue when looking from an antiviral treatment standpoint. My hepatologist had me switch amongst all 3 within the span of a year to see if any particular one would cause less side-effects. The only reason I can think of based on information from this community is TAF is easier on your kidneys if you have kidney issues. TAF has less chance of potential osteopenia (bone degeneration) and osteoporosis. Also, TAF has less dosage of medication. I think I got that all correct. I believe that the majority of people on TDF don’t experience those issues significantly. Plus, you are young and when you are finished with schooling, if you decide to stay in the U.K. afterward, maybe TAF will go off patent by then. Or, maybe when you are finished with schooling, you will move elsewhere, where TAF is available.
Finally, I agree with Levi, I don’t believe switching to U.K. time would be harmful. There are days that most all of us have missed a day’s dose. I have even taken my daily pills twice by forgetting what day it was (even though I have a weekly pill box). I would suggest changing to U.K. time since you are moving there and not just visiting for a vacation. I am pretty sure that your body will acclimate to the time change of when you take your meds based on your new schedule.
As always, I am no expert. I am just relaying my opinion based on the little I know and the accumulation of vast amounts of knowledge from this community. One of the experts will confirm or correct this advice. For now, I hope it allays your worries some.
What a big move this is in your life, you must be excited and probably a little bit anxious. I believe you will do well and prosper and you have this community wishing the best for you!
Hello Paul, how you doing? And thank you for these reply again! And I read your reply carefully, you do make some valid point, I think I’ll consult with my dr, or bring enough monthly amount of TAF to uK and see how the doctors there suggest me to do, also, I think you’re right since I want to live in Uk I might as well switch my meds time withing their local time zone, I went to recheck and my result came back, at exact one year my virus load dropped from 2.87E+09 to 1.34E+03. This month marks a year and two month, my Virus now is 6.34E+02. Hbsag went from 5663-3814, hbeag went from260-296 in 6 months, cause I didn’t monitor these two when I first started .not much changed, The dr here said I could try add one more pill (entecavir) into my daily life another option is I could still take TAF for couple more months, so he want myself to make this decision, I would like to hear your opinion also, and would love to know how long it takes your DNA virus load to be undetectable?
Yes I’m very very excited to have new life in Uk! I wish my health stays well, and I wish you nothing but the best in usa!!
I have good and bad days. Today is a better day, thank you for asking.
When you say that your doctor might ADD ETV (Entecavir) to your treatment or REPLACE your TDF? TAF, TDF and ETV are all antiviral treatments. Again, I am no expert but based on what I have seen within this forum thus far, I haven’t noticed that anyone takes multiple antivirals at the same time. I have heard of having one of the antivirals and Interferon or something like that but not multiple antivirals. Could @ScienceExperts or @HealthExperts advise here please?
As to how quickly HBV DNA quantitative drops to undetectable depends on each person individually. Based on what I have seen within these forums, is around 6-12 months for most. Although, it’s possible that it takes longer for some people and possibly some people never get to undetectable but still have significant decreases. I myself started treatment in 2017 and my HBV DNA was between 3 and 4 million. I do not have access to records prior to 2019 though and I was undetectable at that point. So somewhere less than 2 years for me.
I can understand such inconvenience. I think you can move it up to 8.am UK time. Thitn becomes your time daily. I really don’t think it’s going to cause any problems as long as you are taking your pill daily.
Prince O Okinedo
Team Lead
Hepatitis B Advocacy Initiative
I general, there is no indication to add ETV to TDF or TAF. In few selected cases, this could be done to manage partial virological response. ETV could be replaced by TDF or TAF in specific situations such as pregnancy or drug resistance or partial virological response
Prof. Pietro Lampertico, MD, PhD
Full Professor of Gastroenterology
Head of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division
Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico
Dear normally I feel good, nothing special, but sometimes I do feel certain “hotness from my right rib bones or coming from right side of my back) especially if I stay up kinda late or my diet isn’t clean,
Here are results of my Hbsag/virus load/ ultra sound reports. I haven’t yet checked my liver function this time, cause last time I did was in July, nothing abnormal about it, so I decide to do it maybe in December
Given that your previous liver function was normal, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I think its important to not feel stress and not think about your WELL CONTROLLED infection until your next appointment!
Thanks for your questions. I just wanted to confirm that I just talked with my colleague who is a hepatitis B specialist in the UK and she said it is impossible to get TAF in the UK.
If you go to another time zone (as I just did) I think it is not so important to take it directly 24 hours between each dose. I think the best practice would be every day move it a few hours (forward or backward), until it’s a relatively normal time. But really, most times I arrive in a new time zone, I either forget and miss a dose (not recommended!), or just take it near the same time of the day anyway so I don’t forget (slightly better).
As Prof @PLampertico and @PuallyHBV mentioned, there is no recommendation to take multiple antivirals.
I didn’t realize that it needs to be 24 hours between two pills. Sometimes I took it around 15:00-16:00 and sometimes 22:30-23:30. Did it really make a difference?
Yes, it doesn’t make much difference, but taking it the same time is probably better just practically: easier to remember to take them if you have a habit.
