How long before I die of hepatitis c?
You really need to educate yourself about hepatitis C because it clearly shows that you know very little about it. It is not an automatic death sentence. It's a very slow progressing disease. Without any treatment, one third of those with hep C will develop cirrhosis in 20 years. One third will develop cirrhosis in 30 years. And one third will never develop cirrhosis at all. These are the latest statistics that I could find. There is no way that you can pinpoint this as getting it in the hospital. There are many ways you can come in contact with it, but just because you don't know where you could have gotten it elsewhere doesn't mean you can blame the hospital. That is probably the last place you would get it today with the way things are done in hospitals today. It is spread by blood to blood contact. You cannot get it in food or water as someone else told you. When was the last time you saw anyone working around blood in the hospital without gloves on and they continually wash their hands even after using gloves and between patients. They are very careful because they don't want to get anything either. There is treatment with medication that can help hep C. There are 6 major genotypes of hep C so you will need to find out which one you have. Fifty one percent of those with hep C are cured overall. You really should not be taking any medications that affect the liver in a negative way especially when you have hep C. You need to find a gastroenterologist instead of a regular PCP to treat your disease. It is so important to have a good doctor that knows what to do. All the meds you take needs to be approved by someone who knows about liver disease so you can stay healthy. Not drinking alcohol is very good so keep doing that. There are so many websites on the internet that will educate you about this disease. Just look it up on Wikipedia for a start. Since you will have this the rest of your life, you really should know all about it. I wish you the best.
Hepatitis C long Term Side Effects from interferon and Ribo?
Please Please any information would help. my husband was treated for Hep C last year and took the Interferon and Ribovarian Treatment for a year, they did not tell us that it could cause permanent brain damage and everything else. The first six months off the treatment were ok, but he felt like he was in a fog, then all hell broke loose. He changed. His personality has changed, he is meaner at times, he gets scared at times, (that never ever happened before, he is big guy and not afraid of the world, suddenly afraid to walk down the street), he is insecure and extremely needy, to the point of driving me crazy. I love him with all my heart and dont know how to help or where to get the help for him or if there is help. I can not find out any information except on a herb website. Is there any real information I can get somewhere that is not biased for the drug or against the drug. I just want to know the truth, that we werent told. I want the facts, is the brain damage permanent, will he every be his old self. I also read more than half of the patients loose their jobs and get divorced, I am scared. Anyone please help
Can hepatits c cause drugs to stay in your system longer than normal?
Yes, that is entirely possible. Some drugs are metabolized entirely by the liver, some eliminated entirely by the kidneys, and most a combination of both. Drugs that are cleared entirely by the liver will have extended circulating half lives. I have seen hepatitis patients have drugs with half lives of 8 hrs under normal circumstances be extended to 160 hrs, meaning we dose them once a week instead of 3 times a day, very dramatic difference. The liver is a very resilient organ, and can sustain 2/3 loss before becoming symptomatic, but by that time the the patient is usually terminal. I don't encounter many hep-C patients per se, but you get the picture. To answer your question, opiates are cleared entirely by the liver. In other words, all or almost all opiates spilled in the urine are downstream distant liver metabolites. That is actually what the urine test assays for, not the drug itself. Source: I am a pharmacist.
Can hepatitis C kill you and how long does it take?
In some cases, yes it is possible that Hepatitis C can kill you. At the last stage time you may not even need a second treatment. In other cases, you may need a transplant. If symptoms occur, the average time is 6–7 weeks after exposure, but this can range from 2 weeks to 6 months. However, many people infected with the Hepatitis C virus do not develop symptoms.1–5 people will die from cirrhosis or liver cancer. Approximately 15%–25% of people who get Hepatitis C will clear the virus from their bodies without treatment and will not develop chronic infection. Experts do not fully understand why this happens for some people.If you want to get recover from Hepatitis C then you must have to take some tablets as per your doctor guidance. Chawla Medicos has all those medicines which used in the treatment of Hepatitis C such as: Sovaldi, Hepcinat Tablets, Ledifos, Myhep all, Sofovir Tablets, Hepcinat Lp and Sofosbuvir Tablets.
How long can a person live with hepatitis c and can it be cured??URGENT QUESTION HELP PLEASE?
Rest assured that you can live a very long life with Hep C. Millions have it and don't know it. There is no cure. There is a treatment....interferon with ribavirin....that can drop the viral load to 0. Some call this a cure, but it is not. The disease can reappear if you have a severe illness or extreme stress. I have met some of these people. If your liver is still in pretty good shape, you can live your life and not even be aware of the disease except for fatigue. My husband has had it for over 40 years. Hep C can be transmitted to others only by blood. It is blood to blood contact that spreads it. However, all you have to do is be careful. It's rare to be spread by sex, unless it is rough sex and there is blood involved with both partners, or an infected womans menstrual blood getting into an open pimple or wound on the males penis. It is transmitted by blood left on personal hygine items like razors or combs, toothbrushes, fingernail clippers. If these items have dried blood on them from an infected person and you use them and get any of the blood into an open wound or scratch (open) on your body, you could become infected. It is also spread by getting tattoos with unclean needles and paint pots, or by getting piercings when unclean equipment is used. Sharing needles is a very common way of getting hep C. The virus can live outside the body for 5 days. There is nothing that can kill it outside the body, bleach and alcohol are not affective. There are studies going on about the effectiveness of full strength bleach, but they are still inconclusive. The virus lives forever in your body like the chicken pox virus does. Successful treatment is no guarantee that you can't transmit the disease to others. Do not drink alcohol and don't do hard drugs. Watch the over the counter drugs you take, read the labels, many are hard on the liver. (like tylenol) Herbal cures are not effective and most are just "money makers". Some can also further damage your liver. Hope this has helped you
After you get treatment for hepatitis C do you feel a lot better?
The liver is truly an amazing organ, the only visceral organ capable of regenerating itself. For example, if a lobe of the liver is donated or if it suffers insult or injury, it can regenerate under the right circumstances.The liver is also the storehouse of nutrients, distributing these throughout the body. It filters the blood to remove toxins and secretes bile to aid in digestion. A powerful liver is essential for good health and is one of the many reasons a quality diet is absolutely essential. Fatty liver disease, caused by eating refined sugar and hydrogenated fats, is guaranteed to shorten the lifespan. Staying fit and healthy is the best defense against infection.Hepatitis C is a deadly viral infection of the liver that is extremely life threatening if left untreated. As the body deteriorates due to lack of vital nutrients that are supplied by the liver, a cascading effect of horrible symptoms ensues. The human body is smart and will attempt to prolong life, so the symptoms may be mild to start but will progressively worsen. In the beginning, there may be mild fatigue, joint pain, stomach discomfort, and loss of appetite, but eventually the eyes may turn yellow and bruising occurs from minor bumps or scrapes. Currently, a million new cases per year of hepatitis C is reported and it has about an 85% mortality rate.The virus strain that influences hepatitis C is controversial. It’s an extremely small virus and one strain can become “superinfected” by combining with another strain. This causes the traditional medications to lose effectiveness. Patients with advanced superinfections are not at all likely to feel better. The good news is that science has progressed and there currently is a treatment that cures about 90% of those taking the new drug. The bad news is that it is extremely expensive for the 12 week program and many cannot afford it.
Hepatitis c can you get it from unprotected sex?
HCV is not a true STD because under normal sexual activity, there is no cross contamination of blood to bloodstream. Those nurses out there need to return to school to learn how hcv is contracted. If HCV were transmitted in all bodily fluids, we would see an astronomical infection rate. This is not the case. Although high, most acquire HCV infection today through sharing of drugs. The older hcv community received HCV in numorous ways. HCV corpuscles found in all bodily fluids except that of blood are non contagious nor transferrable. I am married, two kids- all un-infected. People, it's imperrative that you know how hcv "can" be contracted. Sexual exposure and infections are rare. Why? Because, normally there is no open wound and no expsosure to blood during intercourse. HCV is NOT spread by sharing drinks or untensils to eat with. For Gods sake, providing I had no open wound, I could drink the blood of someone infected and not acquire HCV infection. blood to bloodstream=hcv infection. PERIOD.
Has any one had long term side effects from Pegasys?
How long have you been off the treatment? They say it takes 6 months to get the drugs out of our systems, but I believe it's more like a year or two. I did the interferon & ribavirin treatment (non-pegylated, before that came out). I had joint pain before the treatment, but while on treatment it eased. After stopping treatment, it seemed to gradually get worse. I wondered if it was a long term side effect from treatment. Finally, 5 years after tx ,I went to a rhuematologist. At first, they couldn't diagnose me with anything because my blood tests only showed mild elevations. Things kept getting worse gradually, and I knew something was up. I went back a year later, and the PA at the rhuemy's office said she felt it was rheumatoid arthritis. I asked the doctor about the relationship between RA and treatment. The theory is that they think RA may be caused by a virus. The doctor thinks the RA (which they now think I have spondylar arthritis rather than RA, but same type of autoimmune disease, same drugs to treat it) was caused by the hepatitis C, not the treatment for it. If you think about it, the damage from hepatitis C is a result of our own body's attempt to fight off the virus, the luekocytes that attack the virus are what actually causes the fibrosis of the liver. I'm now on a DMARD (disease modifying anti-rhuematic drug) and an antiinflammatory which have helped me return to 99% normal painfree. Best wishes to you.