Ziagen Side Effects

Severe Side Effects of Ziagen

Ziagen may cause potentially fatal liver damage including enlarged liver and fat buildup in the liver.
Some patients have suffered lethal respiratory failure while taking Ziagen or Abacavir Sulfate.
Ziagen may cause heart attacks in some patients.

Common Side Effects of Ziagen

Some of the more commonly reported side effects of Ziagen include upset stomach, disturbing dreams or trouble sleeping, rash, general tiredness, dizzy spells, headaches, and depression.

Warnings & Recalls for Ziagen

Recalls

On June 1st, 2011, Aidapak Services, LLC recalled Abacavir Sulfate 300 mg tablets due to Penicillin cross contamination. The effected lot number is 9ZP6723 and the expiration date is 5/5/2012. For more information, view the FDA enforcement report here.

Black Box Warning for Ziagen

Some patients have experienced lethal hypersensitivity reactions to Ziagen. Typically, symptoms of these hypersensitivity reactions include two or more of the following:

Severe gastrointestinal effects such as nausea, loose stools, and stomach pains
Fever
Rash
Exhaustion or Fatigue, or general weakness.
Shortness of breath, sore throat, and cough.

The patient should immediately discontinue Ziagen if he or she has a hypersensitive reaction. If this occurs, Ziagen should never be taken afterwards or restarted. Patients with the HLA-B*5701 allele pose an increase risk to having a hypersensivity reaction to the drug. It is strongly recommended that the patient is screened for this allele prior to beginning treatment.

Other Warnings

Ethanol may decrease the body's ability to eliminate Ziagen.
Ziagen and other similar antiretroviral drugs may cause Immune Reconstitution Syndrome. This may cause an inflammatory response and worsen or cause some infections.
Some patients have reported weight changes and excess fat or weight loss while taking Ziagen.
Ziagen may cause an unsafe buildup of lactic acid in some patients. If this happens, stop taking Ziagen.

Pregnancy Warnings

Ziagen is a pregnancy category class C drug and may be harmful to take while pregnant. In animal studies, some pregnant lab rats had deformed fetuses as well as lowered fetal weight.

Ziagen Treatment and Use

Ziagen | Abacavir sulfate is an antiretroviral drug prescribed to HIV and AIDS patients. It was approved by the FDA in 1998. Recently, the FDA issued a black box warning for abacavir sulfate due to some patients having a potentially fatal hypersensitivity reaction. Ziagen is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline LLC.

What does Ziagen do?

Ziagen works to minimize the reproduction of HIV cells in the body. Ziagen is not a cure for AIDS and the virus can still be passed to others while the patient is on this medication.

Dosage

The usual dosage for an adult taking Ziagen is 600 mg once daily or 300 mg twice a day. Ziagen is available as a 300 mg tablet as well as 20 mg per mL oral solution. The oral solution is primarily prescribed to pediatric patients who cannot swallow a tablet. Ziagen is prescribed along with other HIV medications and is almost never taken by itself. Some HIV or AIDS medications such as Trizivir, contain abacavir sulfate.