HEP B.

[Anthony K]

Got my biopsy results for Hepatitis B. The Final Diagnosis was as follows
(Chronic

[Jimmy1971]

Hi Anthony, how did you find about your hep b? is your virus inactive or active?

do you have any smyptoms at the moment?

Just 2 months ago found out about this virus. it was rather deactivating. I am trying to be strong and positive.

Your wife must be very lucky. Make sure she gets vaccinated.
Keep in touch, Jim

[Anthony K]

Indeed. I'm soo worry but I had to be strong and fight this.. I also believe faith in God would help me through. Though, I hope cure is found for all this things in the world soon.

[shawn_hsp]

I'm vertical transmission, to determine how long the virus has been in a person's body is difficult to tell, since hep B much easier to be transmitted than hep C...

[Anthony K]

Yes shawn_hsp, I was told you co-pay alone is $40-50. It's real expensive. But is it good? Any significant inprovement?

[shawn_hsp]

I'm almost finished my 2nd month treatment on hepsera, it's a rather expensive drug :(

[shawn_hsp]

I'm currently on Zeffix and Hepsera combined treatment, last week I did a blood test, apparently my AST and ALT went up comparing to the blood test I did 2 weeks before the combined treatment, (I was on Zeffix only before)...

also after I started the combined treatment I started to get pain under my right ribs, on the start of the second month I'm getting blood spots on my skin (little dots of blood under my skin and doesn't expand, the general practitioner said it's definetly not spider angiomata), few days ago I'm starting to get sore back...

The general practitioner also test my for the presents of AFP, and there was none. So he told me that the red blood spots are most likely due to Hepsera, or the use of Zeffix and Hepsera togeather, and that I should have an emergency appointment with my liver specialist who has looked after me for more than 2 years...

By the way, I did a liver biopsy 4 months ago, I got stage 2 fibrosis :(

[Anthony K]

Sound like you're hands on. So overall, Hepsera is worth it uh? It was priscribed but the doc asked me to wait until onother blood test. How long have you had Hep B? Looks like theres lots to learn about this things.
Another mystry the doc could not solve. is how long I've got this stuff in my blood and why my wife whon never remembered getting a vaccine tested negative and rather me getting a vaccine tested positive.. Also, Are there any alternative medications out there?

[shawn_hsp]

it goes until the virus mutate and render the drug useless, but Hepsera got a pretty good history against virus mutation. Not it's not a cure, there are currently no cure for hep B. However there are some people out there were able to get rid off the virus, but still at a risk of having the virus become reactive again. (according to my liver specialist the chances of getting rid off the virus are, about 14% for Zeffix, less than 40% for Hepsera, he didn't mention other drugs, but he did say he'll move me onto a stronger drug if Hepsera doesn't work for me)

This is the mutation rate posted on Hepsera's website...
The cumulative rate of resistance in patients receiving Hepsera as a single therapy were: 0% at year 1, 3% at year 2, 11% at year 3 and 19% at year 4, and 30% at year 5.
As you can see the chances of mutation is quite low, so by the time of 5 years, there'll be new drugs for combatting lamivudine and adefovir resistant mutations. If you look at the timeline on HBF's website, the intervals between approved drugs are getting shorter, and there are currently about 20 drugs on trials.

[honey11]

Shawn,,,how long is the tx for hep b and is this a cure?

[honey11]

I can certainly understand you being afraid but a very big plus is you have very little damage.  I wouldn't want to steer you wrong as like I said I have no knowledge of hep b so hopefully someone that has more insight could answer a few of your questions and whether you should go ahead and do the tx.

[Anthony K]

He said we could use a new drug called Hepsera. It'll lower the viral load and prevent it from replication. But I might have to stay on in indefinitely. So yes there

[honey11]

Anthony,,,,I didn't know there was a treatment for HepB? I know all about hep c but not much on B,,,
What has your dr told you about hep B?