but don’t lose sight of other heath issues

This is really good advice beahaven. Treatment for Hep C provides zero protection from every other disease under the sun (except Hep C) so if you’ve stopped the pills and are SVR and there is something odd happening it should be checked out.

Hello hopey1,

The vast majority of patients – as in 95%+ are the same, or significantly better after treatment. Most patients over 50 say “I have not felt this good in 20 years”

Lucinda Porter and I did an analysis of the FDA FAERS database which covers 48,000+ side effect reports for these drugs. There is nothing unusual (or hidden).

I have about 3000 patients which is almost certainly the biggest independent sample of any doctor in the world and have seen nothing of great concern.

A significant problem with online forums is selection bias. If you look at this forum and search for posts before 2016 what you will see is hundreds of names of people you don’t see here now. They have been cured of their Hep C and moved on so their voices are lost.

Another significant problem is “post hoc ergo propter hoc” which is Latin for: “after this, therefore because of this”. It is a logical fallacy that states “Since event Y followed event X, event Y must have been caused by event X.” – the average age of patients being treated is 55 so there is an inevitability that the diseases of ageing are going to appear before/during/after treatment.

You may find this post of mine from last year useful as it goes into much more detail:

https://fixhepc.com/support-forum/media-news/1555-text-of-email-conversation-with-mrs-debbie-romesburg.html

Hi Nick,

Don’t panic. Unless you also have active Hep B it would be really unusual to run into issues below the age of 40.

It is a very anxious time waiting for details about tests and access but remember – even though you now know you have the virus, you have had it for a while already and you’re still here…

You are touching on one of the bad things about know you have hep C – the mental part. For many patients, one of the many benefits of treatment is knowing the virus is gone.

Hello Ariel,

People with SVR are likely to die at the usual time ~80 of other causes.

People without SVR are likely to die earlier.

So what you can see here is that the 5 year mortality rate (chances of dying in the next 5 years) for people with current HCV is much higher than those who have SVR.

Hello Christine,

Yes it is possible. Hep C seems content to do very little for years then the wheels fall off.

The liver enzymes we measure are actually part of the “guts” of the liver cells – when these cells die we see the liver enzymes released and can measure them in the blood.

One way the body normal deals with viruses is by killing the cells that contain the virus. In some patients they have a robust response and the disease is cured, in others the response is not enough to cure, but enough to cause ongoing damage.

Some patients, often with very high viral loads just allow the virus to do its thing and, as a result, don’t have much happen for ages.

When we look at the patient demographics we can see lots of people in their 40s 50s and 60s but very few who make it past 70 – this is because Hep C tends to chop the last 10 years or so off the expected ~80 years of age average when we tend to expire of natural causes.

Hi Songbird, having a world famous professor treating you probably helps!

Thanks countless,

Hep C is interesting in the way it impacts people. Some are very symptomatic and see dramatic changes with treatment, whereas others seem to be weathering the storm in a t-shirt and shorts.

The psychological part is neglected – it’s nice to know you and your blood are no longer infectious, and of course if exposure prone procedures are part of daily life…

Hi Nick,

If you can get a prescription fom your doc that is great. If not you need to ask for copies of your results. See the “What your soctor needs” section in the footer or here for details about what results are needed to prescribe…

https://fixhepc.com/what-your-doctor-needs.html