please explain und and svr

Question

Can you please tell me what UND and SVR mean? Also if I go thru treatment and am able to clear the virus, is there stil a chance it will come back one day? I heard that you always will carry the antibodies but is the virus gone completely or is it just in remission and can surface again later?

James10500 · Answer

Evidence for a Cure In order for a sustained viral response to be called a cure, the inability to detect Hepatitis C six months after treatment completion must be permanent. Unfortunately, only time and repeated testing can confirm the permanence of viral absence. Hope for pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy representing a Hepatitis C cure took root in the Spring of 2007. In a study led by Mitchell Shiffman, M.D., professor in the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine, and chief of Hepatology and medical director of the Liver Transplant Program at the VCU Medical Center, nearly 1,000 patients were followed for up to seven years after they achieved a sustained viral response. Their results were the most encouraging thus far that Hepatitis C is curable. According to Shiffman, "The use of peg-interferon alone, or in combination with ribavirin, points to a cure for Hepatitis C. This paper strongly suggests, for the first time, that Hepatitis C is a curable disease. After treatment, 99.6 % of the patients remained virus undetectable for over five years." In Schiffman's study, eight patients who achieved sustained viral response tested positive for Hepatitis C at an average of two years following treatment completion. However, it is unknown why this occurred.

flcyclist · Answer

There are many confusing acronyms to learn and you will pick this up quickly.  It was foreign to me at first also.  Those are two wonderful terms you mentioned.  There's a link in the bottom right corner of this page for HCV acronyms or a link here -->

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Hepatitis/Common-Hepatitis-C-Acronyms/show/3?cid=64

I'll leave the second part to those better qualified to answer.