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Questions about Hep C

Hi everyone. I have been dating my girl for a year now. I know she has HepC but i dont know much about it. What should I expect in the future? She is 21, and she has had the disease since she was a little kid. Is there any treatment available now? Thanks
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Port: "I was asymptomatic but treated this year because it was a good time in my life to 'take care of it'."

To clarify, one can be asymptomatic but still have more advanced liver disease.
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My husband has been dating his girl (me) for forty-one years and I've had HepC for forty of those years. I wasn't diagnosed until 1995, so we had the benefit and risk of not knowing about it. (And we survived the sixties, too.)

We did everything people in a family do without taking basic precautions. These precautions are simple but as I say, we didn't know about them. Noone else in my family has HepC.

Treatment is relatively new and changing quite rapidly. When I was finally diagnosed as a Genotype 1 (the hardest to treat) in 1995, there wasn't much out there to give me a good chance at clearing the virus.

I decided to treat with interferon and ribavirin in May 2008, even though my hepatologist (liver specialist) thought I should still wait because of the promise of better therapy.

Many people treat right away for various medical and personal reasons. I had the luxury of waiting because I had little liver damage after four decades. I don't know why I didn't deteriorate, just as there are people who deteriorated who don't know why they did.

I was asymptomatic but treated this year because it was a good time in my life to 'take care of it'. (Also, I was getting over the hill.)

I mostly don't regret my decision but to be honest, part of me wishes I'd had the patience and foresight to wait for better and shorter therapies. As a Genotype 1, the current tx only offered me a middling chance of success.

There is a small chance of vertical transmission from mother to baby (3-5%?). GraniteKonig is treating now and he's had it since birth. Also, I can think of two other members mentioning they transmitted it through pregnancy but not to all their children. Most of us here, though, did not have this experience and our children are unaffected.

Here are some other websites you may want to look at, to learn more about HepC:

http://www.janis7hepc.com/

http://hcvadvocate.org/



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717272 tn?1277590780
It's hard to say what her future will bring.  The disease slowly damages the liver by causing it to swell and form scar tissue.  There are people who carry the disease their whole lives and never have a problem with it.  But there are also people who, having the disease, are more susceptible to severe liver damage from alcohol and other toxins, like over-the -counter drugs.  And people who live a clean life and still get severe damage.  

The worst thing about the disease is that as it is damaging the liver there are no warning signs, like pain or jaundice, until the liver is severly damage.  Once the damage is done the sufferer is in real trouble and could die of cirrhosis or liver cancer.

The liver is one of the few organs that can repair itself and it will do that, to some extent once the virus is removed from the body.  The treatment is 2 drugs.  One is interferon, an immune system stimulator, and the other is ribivirin, an anti-viral agent that makes the interferon more effective.  The treatment is very hard on the patient, making them feel pretty bad, and requires a lot of family and medical support to ease the difficulties of treatment.  It is also very expensive. There are a number of new anti-virals in clinical trials that show great promise when added to the other 2 and they will be available in the next 2 years.

It's a good idea for her to start visiting a hepatologist (gastroenterologist specializing in the liver).  He will be able to assess the damage, if any, already done to her liver and advise her about treating the disease.
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Avatar universal
Some very good treatments now and even better treatments should be available within the next couple of years. That said, it's not necessary for everyone to treat right away. There are many factors to take into consideration including how much liver damage she has. Best person to evaluate the situation is called a hepatologist (liver specialist). They can be found at your larger, teaching hospitals.

As to the future, and given the state of treatment, etc -- you can have every reason to believe that she will live a normal life with a normal lifespan. For most, Hep C is asymptomatic until the very later stages which can be many years away.

Should she decide not to treat, the only precautions you should use is not to share personal articles like a toothbrush, comb or nail clipper with her since Hep C is transmitted blood to blood. Sexual transmission is very inefficient if at all and the CDC does not even recommend condom use to monagamous couples unless anal sex is involved where blood transfer would be more likely because of the softer tissues involved. Of course kissing, hugging food preparation and other everyday things should not be of concern.

Overall, besides not sharing personal items as mentioned, I would treat this relationship just like any other.

-- Jim
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