hepatitis C and Psoriasis

[lizzy28]

I have hepatitis C-genotype 1.  I did a year of intefeuron 4 yrs ago.  My viral load is still undetectable and has been for the last four years.  I also have psoriasis.  I was recently put on Raptiva for the psoriasis--which started to work well after about 2 months.  Raptiva is an immunosuppressant.  So my doctor(dermatologist) took me offf of the raptiva because he feared that it could "reactivate" the hepatitis C.  Is this even possible????  That the Hep. C can be reactivated??  Does anyone know anything about this drug or any other drugs that can aggravate?  the hep c.  The psoriasis is killing me!!!!!!!!!!!

[dointime]

I'm sorry I don't know that answer to this but I hope somebody else will be along soon who will be able to comment.  

I've got a friend who's been SVR for 8 years but he still worries in case his blood could have even a slight chance of being infectious to somebody else.  It all comes back to the question of whether the virus is really all killed off when we SVR or does it linger at undetectable levels kept in check by our immune system?  I don't think anybody has a conclusive answer to this.

dointime  

[jmjm530]

Your dermatologist is 100% wrong.

Like Embrel, Raptiva is a class of psoriasis drugs called biologics. I won't comment on liver toxicity other than to say that I was told Embrel was much more liver friendly than other systemics for psoriasis.

But liver friendly or not -- I would guess the odds of the virus coming back from this drug are zero, which is the case with almost any drug.

Truth is that dermatologists (or GP's for that matter) know practically nothing about hepatitis c and its treatment. Even my Cardiologist keeps asking me if it's OK that I take the statin Lipitor, when every hepatologist I've spoken to isn't concerned at all.

Do yourself a favor and get your derm advice from a skin specialist and your liver advice from a liver specialist. If a knowledgeable liver specialist (hepatologist) clears you for Raptiva, then go for it, assuming the drug will do you some good. You also might want to ask the derm about Embrel that a number of folks here have used.

-- Jim

[jmjm530]

Let me amend that to 99.999% wrong. There have been two documented cases of a viral relapse after immunospressive therapy, but my understanding is that the drugs involved where much more powerful than what we're talking about here. That's two cases out of what I would guess to be hundreds of thousands.