just recently diagnosed

[joannec1273]

I have been recently diagnosed with hep c genotype 4... I am being told that it is only 35 to 50 percent cure able. So far my liver has only had 35 percent damage.  From everything that I am seeing and reading this happens to be the rarest in the united states.. I that true?  I am going start treatment in april of this year...when my other doctors get meds for my diabetes and my ra all figured out... I guess from what i  understand i will be hard to treat because of the rhuematoid arthritis drugs alot you can't take if you have hepatitis...????? Not sure exactly which treatment I will be doing but it sounds like interfernon... Is it as rough as I have heard?

[Bali05]

Hi there joannec1273,

Do you know if or how much liver damage/fibrosis you have?
Rambleon40 makes some very  good points.
Also have another geno4 member his name is Boobert
and he has been looking at an INF free trial which I believe is currently
enrolling . You might want to send him a PM.

b

[rambleon40]

If you have diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis and

if genotype 4 is 35 - 50% curable (true?  I don't know)

... I am amazed that doctors would have you treat.  I'd talk to some other doctors.

What is your general health?  What do you eat?  Forgive me for making assumptions, but you already have at least one and probably two immune system problems, as well as problems that can be exacerbated (sp?) by poor diet.  

Perhaps you should watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (silly title, powerful and touching movie) , read "In Defense of Food" and see what you can do on that front first.  Seriously.  As opposed to just cogging through the rote, mindless tunnel vision pharmaceutical delivery system that is much of the modern American medical profession.  

Option 1 - you're in poor general health w/ RA and diabetes.  So right off the bat poor candidate for INF - odds aren't with you.  Address other problems and poor health first (see above).  INF THERAPY FREQUENTLY CAUSES HARM TO THE FEET THAT DIABETICS CAN'T TOLERATE (no joke) amongst a myriad of other problems.  Heck, INF therapy can cause diabetes.  Find trolleater on this forum and message him about it.  If this option applies to you, make some serious lifestyle changes before treatment, watch your liver enzymes improve, sit on your hands while better (maybe) treatments become available, and increase the odds of success no matter what treatment you do..

Option 2 - you're in great health, work out, exercise eat well, but your body's immune system is whacked and you have diabetes and RA nonetheless. If your immune system is already that whacked, INF is going to be a dangerous thing for you.  Its forte is whacking the immune system.

AAhhhh, my goodness.

[pooh55811]

Welcome to the forum.

Yes, Genotype 4 is rarer in the US than Genotype1, 2, or 3. However, it is prevalent in other areas of the world.

I believe the cure rates for Genotype 4 are higher than what you are being told.

This is what I found in an article published January 2011.

"Controlled randomized and non-randomized clinical trials demonstrated high SVR rates ranging between 50 and 79% in chronic HCV-4 hepatitis patients receiving PEG-IFN-α2b plus ribavirin (34–46) (Fig. 2)."

And another excerpt:  "The hepatitis C virus genotype 4 (HCV-4) is prevalent in Egypt, the Middle East and Africa. Recently, the epidemiology of HCV-4 has changed and this genotype has begun to cross borders and spread to several regions in Europe through immigration and injection drug use. HCV-4 has been considered a difficult-to-treat genotype based on the low sustained virological response (SVR) rates obtained with conventional interferon (IFN)-based regimens. Pegylated interferons (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin therapy for chronic HCV-4 has been associated with increased SVR rates of more than 60%. Shorter treatment of chronic HCV-4 patients with rapid and early virological responses has been associated with high SVR rates, better compliance, fewer adverse events and lower costs."

Here is a link to that article. I think you will find the article interesting and informative.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-3231.2010.02385.x/full


Also, Bali (a forum member) knows a lot more about Genotype 4 than most of us do and he may have some suggestions for you.


Here are 2 past threads that are related to Genotype 4:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Genotype-4-and-new-drugs/show/1722397

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Genotype-4-and-new-drugs/show/1722397


And here are some more links:


http://www.hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com/hepatitis-c-genotype-4.html

http://hepatitiscnewdrugs.blogspot.com/2011/01/hepatitis-c-virus-genotype-4-therapy.html

http://www.hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com/hepatitiscnewdrugresearch.com-12595921694ec45451c4c35/hepatitis-c-genotype-4.html

Come back with questions. This forum is a good place for information and support.  Best of luck.

[willbb]

As genotype 4 is relatively rare in North America there are not many members here with such ,however there have been a few.

A long time member "Bali" is one who has treated and now cured.You may want to type in his name in "search this community" and go to his profile and leave him a personal message

In the meantime I have linked below a very comprehensive article about G 4 and the treatments for such.

Good luck with your treatment and welcome to the group..
Will


http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-3231.2011.02704.x/abstract
.