I had lots of itchy patches and responses to clothing, shampoo, food and sea etc for the 30 + years I had Hep C.

I had ecxema, psoriasis, dandruff etc- not charming…. I had no idea they were HepC connected- specialist never said a word- the psoriasis made me ineligible for a pegylated interferon trial at one point.

I also had cirrhosis- they sound the same and people often swap the words around! Mine got bad, decompensating, and yes skin itchier at that point.

Then- tah dah! # FixhepC, got meds, survived, cured, no hep C, now have none of the above, I can wear what I want, use hotel shampoos, now there are tubes of cream gathering dust in the cabinet..

And even the cirrhosis, has melted away against all expectations to a normal liver.
So, imho, the best treatment for the skin, not ‘just’ liver is DAA’s, and my advice is to everyone- don’t wait, get fixed. Best $ I ever borrowed and repaid.

Hi Apogal,

I have to say, I did 24 weeks treatment- I wasn’t undetected until 18 weeks- had failed 2x before so the skin improvements were not my focus, I didn’t track when/ how much it improved on treatment. Everything I noticed about feeling better was so marvellous- I emerged realising skin was better too.
Pretty sure it took a while but I had bad cirrhosis so you would expect it to sill be an issue until that was cleared up. I didn’t have fatty liver surprisingly, as I am a fatty!

Drinking lots of water is the key, especially for you at the moment, with so much dying virus to be flushed out of your system, it could well be the itching will be worse before it is better while your body adjusts to all that change happening. It is going to be cool hearing how it is going for you, let us know every week or so?

Hello Apogal,

Itch is very common with Hep C and while there is no 100% guarantee most patients troubled by itch before treatment find it goes away on/after treatment.

Please keep us updated about what you notice.

Hello Apogal,

Fingers crossed it becomes less and less.

Hello Pacific,

The itching is almost certainly a mild drug allergy. You may find some over the counter antihistamine, probably taken 1 hour before the Maviret helps a bit. Short of changing the medication this is likely to continue through the entire treatment, but stop the day after your last tablet.

How long are you scheduled for? Ideally we would like 16 weeks Maviret for someone F4 with GT3.

Trestment scheduled for 12 weeks.

CT was unremarkable except liver 8mm hypodensity in hepatic segment 2, too small to characterize. Alt 170, AST 124, alpha fetoprotein serum 20, 9, bilirubin .6, IGG serum 1,437, creatinine .72, hemoglobin 16.5, hematocrit 50.1, MPV 13.1, platletes 32, mutation S62T/Y93H, HCV realtime 3,820,000, HCV log 6.58

PS: The hypodensity in the liver is most likely a cyst, particularly with the AFP of 20 which, although it is > 11 is completely normal for cirrhosis. 200-2000 is normal for HCC so you are much closer 2x to normal on the AFP than cancer 10x +

With cirrhosis, there is a 3% per year risk of HCC (aka liver cancer) so you will need several years of follow up with AFP and Ultrasound once you are cured, but at the moment it looks normal and unworrying.