TOPIC: Reduction of liver fibrosis without antiviral treatment

virus C (GBV-C), formerly known as hepatitis G virus (HGV) and also known as HPgV is a virus in the Flaviviridae family and a member of the Pegivirus genus,[1] is known to infect humans, but is not known to cause human disease

"Analogically, if HCV will may not cause noticeable symptoms for me - what is the reason to define such situation as a "disease"?"

Serg, If you don't believe you have a disease, may I ask what benefit or purpose there is to your participation here?

Your argument seems to be that the only rationale for treatment, or credible indicator of 'disease' would be if one is actually dying of cirrhosis - which is exactly the operative assumption of Big Phama and Big Insurance for denying treatment to Hep C patients until one is by their definition "sick enough".

Errr....Google says that TTW is a computer game that can get infected with the SHuer3 virus??? (Take one subscription to Norton annually. )

LFTs within nominal range that drop on treatment is evidence of that.

let us consider the difference between signs and symptoms. Signs are typically abnormal blood tests; these are the tests that doctors order to monitor patients. Some signs measure the degree of inflammation (such as enzymes called aminotransferases, known by patients as “ALT” or “AST”). While the ALT or AST test is often called a “liver function test”, it really does not measure any function that the liver performs, but simply assesses the presence of liver cell damage. It is more appropriately denoted as a “liver enzyme test”. The other test (sign) that we need to consider is the one that measures the number of hepatitis C particles that are present in the blood (known as “viral load” or “viral titer”). Traditionally, the success of treatment has been measured by the absence of detectable viral particles in the blood at least six months after the therapy has been stopped. This prolonged clearance of virus from the blood stream is known as a “sustained viral response” or SVR.
Symptoms are the things that affect the quality and quantity of life; it is the development of symptoms that concerns patients. Symptoms of liver failure include internal bleeding from dilated veins (called varices), excessive fluid accumulation in the legs (called edema) and abdomen (called ascites), and slowing down of thinking with confusion and even coma (called hepatic encephalopathy). Another symptomatic complication of cirrhosis is the development of hepatocellular carcinoma.
The point is that if only the enzyme tests remain abnormal, and symptoms of liver failure never occur, there is no clinical “dis-ease”. Treatment is irrelevant because it is impossible to make an asymptomatic patient feel better and, at the time of treatment, patients do not have symptoms of end-stage liver disease.

fitz, I have F4 (cirrhosis) - hence, i definitely have a disease.

Both the studies you list in the above quote are from 2004 and well prior to the development of modern DAAs such as Sofosbuvir, Ledipasvir, Daclatasvir, etc, etc. If you are going to cite studies to try to support your claims about the modern DAAs you need to provide more current information.

Serg, I also think that you need to take into consideration whether you treated and failed treatment previously because studies have shown that may impact their health in the future.