My rash was caused by autoimmunity. It was a form of scleroderma (which means, literally, "hard skin") called morphea. Nobody seems to know what causes it, but treatment made it worse - to the point where I had to quit.
Because so many of us heppers have autoimmune issues, there is a theory that one's own immune system is amped up by the hepatitis and is pumping out huge amounts of natural interferon - but not enough to kill the virus. The interferon we inject does the job, then, but we're somehow allergic to it and get rashes, rheumatoid arthritis, porphyria, etc. Mremeet's description pretty much covers how this works, but nobody really knows for sure. In my case, my immune system attacked my skin. (BTW, diabetes - which a lot of us seem to get - may also have an autoimmune component.)
I don't know if people with autoimmune problems do better on tx or not. This would be a fascinating research project for some smart scientists to work on. Maybe the rash you got in '84 represented a symptom of the acute phase of hcv. Who knows. In any case, I hope that when you treat you don't suffer from any exacerbations of the rash. You might want to consult with a rheumatologist on this, or at least get tested for autoimmune factors in your blood. Happy Halloween.
I was enrolled in the VX950 drug trial and I had a horrible rash pretty early on during treatment. It was a full blown drug allergy (came on about week 6) that was exacerbated by interferon/riba (immunostimulants). I'm SVR now with only 41 weeks of treatment, although that was with the help of VX950 of course. But I took a lot of prednisone (and immunosuppressant) to subdue the rash and discontinued the VX early. Prednisone subdues your immune system and makes it less likely you'll clear the virus during treatment. Also, my riba was stopped for days at a time on and off and then continued at a sub-optimal dose for the remainder of my treatment. I still SVR-ed, and I think I would have SVR-ed had I stopped at week 10 or so (can't prove that of course).
Anyway, rashes are often the result of allergies or autoimmune responses to either the tx drugs, or perhaps even to the virus itself (or both). I noticed pigeonca's 13 week SVR too, and although she was a geno 2 (the easiest to treat geno), this is still very impressive. She said she has autoimmune issues (AIH I think?), and yes I think this may have helped her clear the virus more rapidly than another comparable person without the AIH. Allergies or even all out autoimmunity usually occurs when your immune system basically overreacts to something that is either relatively benign (like pollen) or to something more harmful (like hep c). In the case of hep C the immune system can mount an admirable defense and attempt to get rid of the virus, but due to the virus' defense mechanisms it's able to avoid eradication. But the immune system keeps on trying, keeps on attacking in every way it knows how. Sometimes it gets confused and can start attacking the body itself, and in the case of AIH w/HCV it attacks the primary hosting organ for HCV, compounding the damage caused by HCV itself.
So although I can't prove it, I do think people with autoimmune issues (which includes a higher propensity for rash) are more likely to permanently clear the virus and in a shorter period of time. I also suspect that those with autoimmunity issues are more likely to have lower overall starting viral loads (again without being able to prove that). The downside is that those with rash issues (especially severe) are more likely to halt treatment early which in many cases lowers their odds of successful treatment. Similary those with AIH are often precluded from taking interferon based treatments altogether because it can exacerbate their AIH to a point of doing more harm then good.
The two rashes that are connected to hep C are lichen planus and porphyria cutanea tardia and these are no ordinary rashes. They ar also not common.
Billy, I'm not sur where you are hearing this. I've been working in the hepatitis community since 1995 and I have never heard this. Rashes are very common. We've all had them at one time or another. I think the rash connection is mighty slim.