Many people with HIV fast
Many Muslims on HIV treatment fast in Ramadan by moving their medicine to suhoor or iftar. Studies of people on HIV treatment who fasted have found fasting to be generally safe for people whose HIV is well controlled. The one rule that never bends: do not skip or stop your HIV medicine to fast.
Speak to your clinic before Ramadan
A few weeks before Ramadan, tell your HIV clinic you plan to fast. They can check whether your treatment can be moved, whether any of your medicines must be taken with food or at fixed intervals, and how to manage any other medicines you take. The HIV information service i-Base gives the same advice: it is fine to move the times you take your medicine to fit around fasting, but not to miss doses.
Moving your doses
- Once-a-day treatment is usually the easiest: take it at suhoor or iftar, at the same time each day.
- Shift gradually. If your usual time is far from suhoor or iftar, your clinic may suggest moving it a little each day, rather than all at once, until it lines up.
- Twice-a-day treatment can often be split between suhoor and iftar; ask whether the gap between doses is acceptable for your medicines.
- Medicines that need food should be taken with a meal, at suhoor or iftar. Very heavy or fatty meals can affect some medicines, so ask your clinic about yours.
- Set alarms for suhoor and iftar doses. Changed routines are when doses get missed.
When not to fast
Allah has made ease part of this worship: “Whoever of you is ill or on a journey, then an equal number of other days”, and “Allah intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship” (Qur’an 2:184–185). Your doctor may advise against fasting if, for example, you have just started or changed treatment, your viral load is not yet under control, you are unwell, or a medicine must be taken during the day. Taking that advice is not a failing; it is using the concession Allah gave.
Whether you should make up the fasts later or give fidyah instead depends on whether you can fast on other days, so ask a scholar you trust about your own situation.
Sources
- i-Base: Can I take HIV meds during Ramadan fasting?
- Ramadan fasting among people with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy (PMC)
- NHS: Living with HIV