Ok Aaron, you'd like me to provide data. To date, I can give you a multitude of links to studies and abstracts saying viral load plays no role in fibrosis progression. Can you provide a link that says it has been proven low viral slows the progression of fibrosis? You are a proponent of the hemopurifier that is supposed to lower the viral load yes? Certainly you have data from that to support a lower viral load slows down fibrosis,
I'm not going to argue the point any longer. All I can say is I believe what all the renowned hepatologists and studies throughout the world have indicated so far. VIRAL LOAD HAS NO BEARING ON FIBROSIS PROGRESSION......Prove me wrong, show me something, conclusive and I will gladly change my viewpoint.
Trinity
You said "I've yet to see anything from the AALSD, Clinical Care Options, Medscape or the likes that showed any correlation between viral load and liver damage."
"We would know by now if there was a true connection."
That is exactly the point , there is no scientific data .... how would we know ?
Webmd link you gave - Is 2 doctors opinions ... not scientifically validated data. If we read further down the link you gave , one of those doc goes on to say " I cannot say there is a cure" .... another "can of worms" ...
Too much is still not known , too many areas have not been studied about this virus. As we all know, it takes big $$ over many years and thousands of subjects, for the scientific data to say the impact is 100% like this or 100% like that ....
To give your opinion , ya we all have those , to say.... we would already know ? Data please ... not doctors opinions .
Thanks for the links, my bookmarks HCV continue to grow. All the better for sharing with others.
http://www.webmd.com/hepatitis/c-hcv-viral-load
"With HCV, viral burden in hepatitis C does not necessarily predict the natural history of clinical disease. And therefore, patients need to understand that we use that measurement to help us guide therapy and response to therapy. We use it in conjunction with other types of laboratory data -- liver enzymes, liver biopsies sometimes, and viral genotype. Taken all together, these tests give us a snapshot of what is going on. But viral load numbers do not predict disease."
"Unlike HIV, HCV viral copies do not directly affect a patient's prognosis and how fast disease is progressing in the liver. Remember, we are measuring blood levels, not what is happening in liver cells. HIV viral load does have a lot to do with quicker progression to AIDS. But HCV viral load does not tell you how fast hepatitis is progressing."
" A correlation between HCV viral load and disease progression has not been shown. "
http://hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com/hcv-viral-load-test.html
" The lower the pre-treatment viral load, the more likely it is that a person will respond to current HCV therapies. "
http://hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com/hcv-viral-load-test.html