Hello wrightjw198034,

Sadly, yes, there have been patients who have failed the treatment. If you treat over 3000 patients, and we have, and the cure rate is 95% that dictates there are 150+ patients who failed the first round.

To make matters worse cure rates for GT3 are lower than for GT1 or GT2. That said, the odds are still very good - > 90% where exactly how much better depends on level of fibrosis, ribavirin and duration of treatment.

An easy way to put your mind at rest is to test your viral load - chances are this will be undetectable after 4 weeks. See fixhepc.com/link2labs for a < $100 source of PCR testing.

It's not unusual to have very few side effects. The usual major "side effect" is feeling better rather than worse.

Hi 808cruiser,

I know those figures can seem crazy high and worrying but like others my viral load was all over the place before treatment. Anywhere between 1 million and 5+ million and beyond. It doesn't matter much where it is when you start treatment - the most important thing is that those little critters are undetectable at the end.

Good luck with your treatment.

Hi Paul,

Yes it is possible to be cirrhotic with few symptoms.

With GT3 and cirrhosis you must have ribavirin with the Sof/Dac. You should also have 24 weeks treatment.

For GT3 cirrhotics Sof/Vel for 12+ weeks (and preferably with riba) is the best 1st line option.

Hi Dr James, Thank you for your advice. I am already taking B12 sublingual, do you think I should take a B12 shot?
I am also taking vitamin A because I am concerned with a side effect related to blurred vision. I read complaints about it which don't subside after treatment. Do you know of patients taking Maviret that had s vision problems?
Can you please advise when it would be the best time to take the first test for viral load?
I am thinking this Monday, 22 days after treatment.
Should I wait for three weeks to be complete in order to take the test?
I am having insomnia can you recommend a relaxer - I asked my Dr but he says I should not take anything to help me sleep.
He says diazepam is processed by the liver therefore I should not take it.

May I ask another question?
I use oregano oil topically. Do you think this oil can jeopardize treatment?

Thank you for your help. And sorry for so many questions.

C

Thank you

Hello tototo,

Sorry to hear you seem to be having a bit of a hard time with the medication. While it's unusual it does happen. You may find increasing your fluid intake and trying some vitamin B12 help matters.

Usually, we see thing settle down during the course of treatment as the virus is removed.

It does sound like side effects related to the Maviret, so it might be best to take it just before bed, that way you will (hopefully) sleep through them (and the tiredness you get 3 hours after will be hidden during sleep).

Hello,
Thank you in advance for your help. I am on day 18th of mavyret and very concerned with side effects:
I dont' feel like myself since i started treatment. There was one day after the first week that i felt lots of energy and a very clear mind, which was so nice to feel , but have not experienced another such day.
I have been taking the pills religiously at 2pm but today switched to 6 pm.
I made this change because this is what happens:
I wake up in the morning feeling normal everyday. Around two hours later it starts feeling foggy and just with a cloud over my head. I take medication with food at 2pm and around 5 I feel very tired.
Have been going to bed at 8:30 fall asleep and wake up at midnight, two, or 3am, and can't go back to sleep for a couple of hours..
I have a running nose like I would have a flu and sneeze like I do have it.
I changed the schedule hoping that by the time I start feeling tired is about 9pm, I sleep through it and wake up refreshed.
Let's see how it goes...
Started treatment October 25th
1A
Fibrosis 1 to 2 F
VL 1980000

No other medication being taken

Dr wanted me to take first blood test on November 1st, seven days into treatment but I suspect it is too early, and since he does not want to to run other tests not until I am done with treatment I taking the tests on November 12th.
I just hope that nothing really bed is going on and that I regret not taking the tests 7 days into treatment.

I am so worried.

Hello wrightjw198034,

For a treatment naive GT3 patient with low fibrosis 12 weeks of Epclusa will deliver a 95% cure rate.

Yes, being undetected at 4 weeks is a good sign.

While ~22% of people will still be detected at 4 weeks these patients go on to form ~44% of the relapse cases. Note that most of the relapse patients were undetected at 4 weeks, but the odds of relapse are higher if you are still detected. If still detected at 4 weeks, adding 4 weeks extra treatment as a from of insurance is not an insane idea.

Hello 808cruiser,

2-3 million is the average.

People have higher levels when their immune systems are not doing much. While this might sound bad, the damage from Hep C is driven by the immune response. The little critters don't eat much, so, curious as it may seem, people with a viral load of 10 million are often a lot healthier and less damaged by the Hep C than people with a viral load of 10 thousand where there immune systems are working hard to get rid of the virus and killing lots of liver cells in the process.

Anyway 4 weeks after you start treatment you will have < 15 ...

Hi,

The odds are so extremely good, as in rare medical miracle good, for all of us with these great new meds, GT3 is only slightly more likely to need another go. I was in that hardest group, had failed the old treatments twice, g3, had it decades, cirrhosis, on the slide down. I wasn't undetected I think until about 18/24 weeks treatment, but I won the fight this time. Don't even worry about all those stats, it is the finish line, takes a while, but sooo worth it.

Great to hear you have started. I felt better really fast, others that is more incremental, but your virus is getting marching orders, right now! good luck.

Hello wrightjw198034, welcome to the forum, and congratulations on starting treatment . Don't stress out, even though Genotype 3 is the most difficult of all genotypes, it's still easy to treat for treatment naive patients with the new DAA medications, such as Epclusa. So if the generic Epclusa you're taking is of good quality, your cure chances are really excellent with the standard 12 weeks course, about 90% (95% for the other genotypes).

Also, if you're undetected at 4 weeks, it does not mean that you will be cured after the end of treatment with total certainty. Cure can be declared with 99% certainty when a patient has an undetectable test 12 weeks after end of treatment. The certainty increases to 99.9% when the test yields an undetectable result 24 weeks after end of treatment, this is the golden standard for declaring a patient cured.

On a side note, if you're undetected at any time after start of treatment, there is no need to waste time and money by taking the test again until you finish treatment, because once you're undetected during treatment, you will stay undetected until you finish it.

Hey there! I just started my generic Epclusa last night. Very excited! I am getting stressed out though because I have heard of so many people with GT3 relapsing and the virus coming back. I am treatment naïve but worried that 12 weeks of the Epclusa might not be enough? If I’m Undectected at 4 weeks does that usually correlate to irradication of the virus? Does that usually lead to being cured for good?

Hi 808 cruiser and welcome.

As the others have mentioned,amount of viral load is of really no consequence. When I was first diagnosed mine was 9 mill. and then when I started my first treatment years later it was 6.5 mill.

It flucuates up and down on a regular basis. It is a war between them replicating and your immune system fighting them.

Hopfully you will be treating soon with these excellent drugs that stop that replicating process in its tracks.

Hello 808cruiser, welcome to the forum! Strange as it may seem, your viral load has very little correlation to cure rate. Patients with high viral loads have the same excellent cure chances as anyone else, 95% for Genotypes 1,2,4,5,6 and 90% for Genotype 3, when treated with the modern direct-acting antiviral medications, or DAAs (e.g. Harvoni®, Epclusa®, etc). Besides, 4 million is not very high, I know FixHepC patients who started treatment with about 30 million viral load and got cured easily. It's common to see a patient with a 16 million viral load go to 1,600 in the first week of treatment, these drugs are remarkably effective. Please this thread of the forum for more on this topic fixhepc.com/forum/fixhepc-admin/1930-viral-load.html#26786 Best of luck to you.

Can't remember what mine was.

In the end I got treated and got rid of the virus.

Can't remember now if the viral load is/was that significant for treatment in my case - GT3??

Made a difference though when it become undetected!

It's funny that this is all a distant memory now I am free of Hep C.

All the best with your treatment,

Jeff

Hello kaju,

Your most recent results

7/10/18 Glucose 83 Creatinine .88 UreaNitrogen(bun) 9

Seem to show things have settled down nicely. I'd suggest you just keep an eye on it from time to time over the next year, and if nothing much changes - keep less of an eye on it!