Hep C infected for 10 years and am now Hep c negative (no treatment)

[L ANN]

Hi i am a x herion user but i now stii use speed one to twice a week.iam 28 years old and have had Hep c for 10 years, my last test was taken 4 years ago and it came up as hep c posative. i have had a current test for hep c and i do not have it anymore, anti bodys have been detected but i havent had any treatmet for the viris. Is this normal alfter 10 years of haveing the viris?

[cuteus]

goof, with that riba dose, I think you have a really good shot at SVR with what you did. RVR, and high riba dose, sounds good to me. But please get an early PCR, I don't think many of us can take the anxiety of waiting three months.
Jm; good luck on the final answer...re tx. When will you do the first post tx PCR?

oh! here is the study, it was geno one. There were a couple members here, who ended tx, were pos post tx, and months later became neg and remained negative. One of them is being followed up as a "rarity", the other just posted two yr neg PCR.
http://hcvadvocate.org/news/reports/AASLD_2004/Posters_AASLD_2004.htm#A39

[jmjm530]

Cuteus said: When will you do the first post tx PCR?
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Not sure if it matters in my case.

If I were planning on re-treating right away in case of relapse, then I'd ask for weekly PCR's to narrow the gap between treatments.

Realistically, both my doctor and myself believe my body will need at least six-months of recovery before any further treatment in the event of relapse.

Of course, the curiosity factor favors a 30-day PCR (or even less) -- but then again there's Willing's approach. I think he waited two years?

So, I'll probably do something inbetween. Right now, I see ending treatment and SVR as two separate things. Hopefully, one will follow the other, but even if not, I still consider my tx as a  victory to have been able to stay on the drugs this long giving myself what I consider to be a reasonably chance of success while hopefully still haven't done anything to my body that will not be reversible when I get off the drugs.

-- Jim

[cuteus]

If we can convince our dr and insurance companies, it looks like this type of testing will tell whether we truly are negative HCV:

"Of the 56 patients who provided specimens, serum and plasma obtained from 18 tested negative for HCV RNA at the end of treatment, indicating a complete virologic response. In contrast, analysis of whole-blood specimens obtained at the same time revealed the presence of viral RNA in 12 of these 18 patients. All 12 subjects had relapse of HCV in serum and plasma: 11 relapsed a median of 4 weeks after the end of treatment, and 1 relapsed 20 weeks after the end of treatment. None of these 12 patients

[jmjm530]

May be wrong, but I believe the test in study cited was only 100% predictive of relapse, not of SVR. In other words, you could still test negative on the whole blood assay and still relapse. That said, it still would be a valuable tool. But all said, is it so much an insurance issue or the fact that this test is only available in research labs? If it's on Quest's form, my insurance usually pays.

Do you have a link to study?

[Dale_Ray]

Miracles happen everyday but just make sure you're clear I would be retested. I hope it is a miracle we all need those in our life. As far as the drugs you probably need a new circle of friends and remove yourself from the environment. I hope everything is truly okay and you are virus free. Dale

[can-do-man]

Wow, you got that whack a mole game, thats a cool game. If you don't hit him in time he says "miss me". And if you do he goes "ouch that hurt" Dang though you got to me quick.