Has Anyone been told you no loger have Hepatitus(hepatitis)?

I know this disease is supposed to be one of those "incurable" malady', but if you have been told that you do, or did, and then that your case of Hepatitus (hepatitis), in any form was gone, please resond here with an explaination aboput what occured, if you would... and anything further you'd like to add to this topic.
Thanks~
;~})

[Bill1954]

Hi there,

About 15-20% of patients that have been exposed to the Hep C virus (HCV) will spontaneously clear the active disease in the first six months of infection. This is known as the ‘acute’ phase.

Spontaneous resolution will only occur during that time frame; if the infection persists for more than six months, it enters the ‘chronic’ phase, and will require treatment to resolve.

If you are in doubt, ask your doctor for a ‘HCV RNA by PCR' test. This is definitive for active virus, assuming your exposure was at least six months ago.

Best to you—

Bill

[medicmommy]

Hello. If you have had Hep C, and the virus is now undetectable in your blood, you can kiss the ground and thank god you are one of the 20% who fought it off naturally and was not "blessed" with a chronic infection.  Even if a person has gone through the treatment for Hep C and has a zero viral load ever since they've completed it, they will always have the antibodies to it. This will show as "positive" on a test for it, but the test that shows the amount of virus that is active will show as undetectable on the quantitative test. Like cancer after successful chemotherapy, you are believed to be "cured" but always, lurking in the background, will be the possibility it can come back....~MM

[Marcia2202]

Hepatitis C is NOT incurable.

I have gone through 8 months of treatment and am now cured since 1 year!

[mikesimon]

Yes, I have been told.
Mike

[jdwithhcv]

Me too.
jd

[nygirl7]

72 weeks of treatment and have been cured for over three years.  I don't plan on being reinfected that was just stupidity in my twenties and the thought that I was immortal (like all kids think, it won't happen to me).

But yes cured all gone no more thank God!

[tikay99]

Oooh! Thanks for this info folks~ I had been told I had antibodies by one doc, that I had Hep C....but just antibodies and not the illness....Then I asked a second opinion to be told I had Hep C, if I carried the antibodies. Then After being careful with my health for five years and saying to folks that I had Hep C....I was told I absolutely did NOT have it!
I was pleased of course but WARY, and WONDERING what the heck was really going on. So...Thanks for your words~ i will take one more test i believe, now...just to be reassured! Love IT!
T.K.
;~})

[Bill1954]

It sounds like congratulations are in order; very cool!

This is a good site if you want to read a little more about all HCV; even the basics can be very confusing:

http://janis7hepc.com/have_you_been_just_diagnosed.htm

Scroll down the page; you’ll find lots of pertinent info. Take care—

Bill

[annfrank]

I took a medication called tegretol 21/2 years ago, mind you I was a ten year IV user.  When I got off the meth I was tested for HIV and hepC always negative.  Until the tegretol. My liver enzymes climed to 1491 and there after 836 every six months or so. I tested four negative for hep c and two possitive.  Everytime they test it's a mystery if it will be there or not. I went from a healthy liver to stage 2 and stage 2 fibrosis in just seven months. Everytime we were to start treament I couldn't because it was gone again.  Even though in stage two only i have all the signs and symptoms of end stage liver disease.  My doctor keeps saying it a million dollar question.  Wht do i keep clearing the hep c?  why does it keep comming back? When will i feel better?  why are my muscle cramps so bad to the point i cant walk when blood work is fine? Seems as if I take any meds not good for the liver my enzymes climb too high.  She feels possible it might be toxic hep but cant find toxcisity there at the moment.  So if you take a medication that gives you toxic hep after you quit the medication its not going to continue showing toxic liver right?  Just will show that it was toxic at one time?

[IAmTheWalrus]

HCV does not "come-and-go" that way. You either have a chronic infection or you do not. I hope you do not. The definitive test is an RNA PCR test that detects active virus replicating in your liver and showing up in your bloodwork, rather than just a positive test to the antibody. Perhaps you are testing positive on the antibody test, meaning that you have been exposed to the virus, and then testing negative to the PCR, which indicates that the infection is not chronic (meaning you have cleared the disease and the virus is essentially gone).

Changes in liver disease stage and liver enzymes (ALT, AST, billirubin) can change however, but that is not necessarily because of Hep C. I can be drugs taken (even the legal prescribed ones), diet (fatty liver), other liver diseases, alcohol consumption, etc.

Good luck. I hope above all you get feeling better.
Brent

[IAmTheWalrus]

I must correct myself. After reading your profile I see that all of your PCR tests show active virus. No test showing "undetectable (UND".  You say you first were diagnosed with Hep C and Hep A, and that the Hep C went away. Are you sure it was not the other way around? Hep A is never a chronic infection. You get it, and you get rid of it, like the flu, but it can do some permanent damage to your liver in the acute phase. It does not becomes chronic. Hep C, on the other hand, most often results in a chronic infection.

Hep C can disappear spontaneously, but more often becomes chronic, meaning that you have a lifetime infection. In this case, you will not be rid of the virus until you undergo a successful treatment with antiviral drugs that takes from 12 weeks to 72 weeks of treatment, and then is not always successful.

It sounds more likely to me that you have Hep C, but have cleared the Hep A. Again, the definitive test is a qualitative or a quantitative PCR test which actually detects the virus.

Your doctor should be able to clarify this.

Brent

[twozoon]

My doctor told me that I have hep c but my body fought it off so my blood test comes back neg/pos. What I would like to know is , can I donate blood and or platelets. since my body fought it off ?

[speed502]

I tx'd in 2000, SVR in 2001. My doc said I was not "cured" but instead used the term "permanent remission", if I recall correctly (which I often don't).

to twozoon:
I was also told at the time that I could no longer donate blood. I originally had found out I was HCV positive through my usual donation.

speed