New hepatitis C treatment: 2 new medications may increase success rate to 70%
Mayo Clinic: Four million people in the U.S., 100 million worldwide, are infected with Hepatitis C. It's a virus you can get from blood transfusions given before 1990, shared needles, unclean tattoo needles and sometimes sex.
In many cases it leads to cirrhosis of the liver and eventually liver cancer. Standard treatment with interferon and ribavirin only cures about 45% of all patients. But thanks to two new medications, up to 70% of people with hepatitis C may be be cured. More than 40 medications are in development.
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I participated in a phase three clinical trial study for Boceprevir at Lahey Clinic and six months post treatment remain HCV negative. Treatment time for me was also reduced to 28 weeks due to my excellent response. The worst side effect I experienced was anemia which I was treated with procrit for with success and my medication was not reduced due to this side effect. Boceprevir was F.D.A. approved May 13, 2011. I consider myself very fortunate to have participated in this study. Thank you Merck and Lahey Clinic.
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