Thanks to Sharky00, Paul, Sabrecat, GAJ & Vororo for all your input re Ribavirin. Paul, I laughed out loud at your story of putting the Riba in the bin & having to rescue it…
I’ve slept on it, and this morning I watched this video again, it’s a valuable survey of the arguments for & against including Ribavirin in treatment.
He focuses on G3 at 9.20, and there’s an interesting bit about Riba resistance at 12.20.
I’ve decided to stop taking Ribavirin, for the following reasons:
1. horrible sides, bordering on unbearable, both physical & psychological
2. marginal (at best) to zero gains, especially given that I’m not cirrhotic
I can review this when I have my 2 week & 4 week bloods depending on how the viral load is looking.
GAJ, in answer to your question, how did I handle Peg/Riba first time round? Well, I did the 24 weeks, it was no fun, but then (late 2014) there was no alternative available to me, plus I was buoyed along by knowing that I was UND from week 4, so it was working. The sides that I’m experiencing now are very reminiscent of first time round (rage/depression, skincrawl, feeling like s**t), but they weren’t consistent first time round, they came & went. The difference now is that I know there IS an alternative (Sof/Dac) which is highly likely to cure me, which makes it that much harder to put up with the Riba.
Good luck to all of you doing treatment.
Born 1954, male
Genotype: 3a
Infected: early 80s
Diagnosed: 2013
Treatment: 24 weeks Int/Riba 2014 relapsed
Fibroscans:
10.3/F3 in 2/2014
6.9/Normal in 11/2015
Latest Viral Load: 52000 in 6/2015
ALT, ALP & AFP all in normal range 6/2015
I’m a G3, on day 5 of Tx (12 weeks of Sof/Dac/Riba). I spent months getting my generics (via GregJ) so that I could:
1 – get treated at all, I was on an indefinite NHS waiting list
2 – avoid Interferon & Riba, and take the 21stC drugs rather than the 20thC ones.
In the end, like a good boy, I decided to add Riba to the Sof/Dac, because everybody was telling me that it gave you a slight but significant edge in getting a cure. After all, why spoil the ship for a ha’porth of side effects?
Well, I’ve had a day of poisonous anger, depression and now crawling skin, and I’m beginning to regret adding the Ribavirin to the cocktail.
In fact, I’m thinking of binning it. Or setting fire to it. Can I put up with 12 weeks of this for some notional edge? (elsewhere on the Forum Dr F. has posted some trial results from France that indicate that there is little difference between Sof/Dac, and Sof/Dac/Riba for G3s). Hell, I don’t even have cirrhosis, and my fibrosis has regressed from F3 to borderline normal.
Any thoughts?
