A treatment session lasts around half and hour and the area treated is inflamed for a couple of days afterwards. Massaging the injection sites is
advised to make sure the product is spread evenly inside the skin.
Being biodegradable, the New-Fill gradually disappears and the surrounding
tissue remains, but not for ever - a 'top-up' treatment may be needed
after
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Before and after treatment with New-Fill
18 months or so.
The product costs around £140 per treatment; administered privately
it works out at around £400 a visit, so for most people the NHS
would seem the only place to look for help to get it. A number of HIV
clinics are trying to make New-Fill available, but this is mainly through
clinical studies with limited access.
The majority of patients treated with New-Fill are satisfied with the
results, although it has to be said, the more doctors can use the treatment,
the better results can be achieved. Practice makes perfect.
While some HIV doctors want to offer this treatment, internal hospital
drugs and therapeutics committees have to be persuaded to make it available.
That is if NHS purchasing/commissioning managers are prepared to allocate
funds to it - most aren't.
In hospitals where studies are taking place, there are more patients queuing
up for the treatment than places available, yet according to Dr Stephen
Ash at the Ealing Hospital, the costs of New-Fill would be a small percentage
of the total drugs budget.
His feeling was also that most commissioners will only commission things that are in the British HIV Association Guidelines. Maybe it's time that
