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Harvoni with Ribavirin 8 years 1 month ago #13082

Sundance Topic Author Offline New Member Posts: 5 Thank you received: 2	Just wondering if I should take 4 weeks of Ribavirin at the end of my 24 weeks of Harvoni at week 20 now, has anyone else tried this. It was recommended to me when I started but things change, I was going to take 2 X 500mg/day for 4 weeks as well as the Harvoni. The following user(s) said Thank You: LondonGirl

Harvoni with Ribavirin 8 years 1 month ago #13129

LondonGirl
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Good question Sundance :+1:

I think a couple may have done this, or added Riba at the start.

May I ask what your reasoning was behind this? I'm extending treatment (but with Sofo/DAC) due to being a slow responder. Not 'that 'keen on the Riba idea I must say as I am very low weight, but keen to do what I can for the best chance. I know there is some discussion re this dotted around, but it would be handy to have any more recent comments here, for sure.

GT1a Dec14 F2/8.7 VL 900000-2.5M
Jan16 Hepcivir-L MonkMed/Redemption
Baseline: VL 913575 Alt 76 Platelets low
Wk2 VL1157 Alt 23
DET Wk 8 VL 32 Alt19 'In the slow lane'
June16 Fibro 5.7 F0/1 LIF 1.5
Wk 11 VL<12 Alt 13 Det/Unq
Extending tx 12 wks Mylan Sofo/Dac MonkMed
Wk 14 VL <12 Det/Unq
Wk 16 VL UNDETECTED
Wk 22 + 4 Wks Sunprevir FixHepC
Wk 24 UNDETECTED Alt 13
Wk 12 post tx SVR12 Wk 26 SVR24
Thank-you Tim, Dr Debasis @ MonkMed & Dr Freeman @ Fix HepC

Harvoni with Ribavirin 8 years 1 month ago #13162

Sundance Topic Author Offline New Member Posts: 5 Thank you received: 2	I spoke to James Freeman when I was just starting treatment and at the time this was his suggestion as I was reluctant to have the Ribovirin, so I will just take it for the last for weeks I was not detected at 4 weeks into treatment. So I will just try if I can tolerate it for 4 weeks. The following user(s) said Thank You: LondonGirl

Harvoni with Ribavirin 8 years 1 month ago #13215

A.L.
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Sundance wrote: I spoke to James Freeman when I was just starting treatment and at the time this was his suggestion as I was reluctant to have the Ribovirin, so I will just take it for the last for weeks I was not detected at 4 weeks into treatment. So I will just try if I can tolerate it for 4 weeks.

One thing you should know about ribavirin is that it has a long half life and takes quite some time to accumulate in your blood. In fact, it takes about four weeks to reach equilibrium levels, so if you take it for that period, it will just be reaching its high point when you stop using it.

What that actually means in terms of treatment, I don't know, but no-one is very clear about how ribavirin works in any case.

Here is a link to a good paper with the relevant graph on the third page:

Ribavirin paper

G4, F4, cirrhosis.

Thank you to Gilead, Michael Sofia, and the terrific folk at FixHepC for making this adventure possible.

YEAR..... ALT..... AST..... GGT... FERRITIN........................................
2009....... 210..... 215..... 953..... 1400........... (Bad health, stupidity)
2015....... 60....... 45....... 150..... 360............. (Improved diet and health, FixHepC treatment)
2016....... 20....... 24....... 25....... 156............. (SVR 12)

The following user(s) said Thank You: mgalbrai, Gaj