Genotype 1a treatment 24 weeks

[yoyoma123]

I'm 34 in good shape. Have very little symptoms. Have 8 million viral load. Have ALT and all other blood work like colesterol etc etc great. Have genotype 1a. Biopsy of liver came back just with some inflammation of liver nothing that bad.

Starting treatment in 2 days. Is it true that if I'm UND in 4 weeks I can treat for 24 weeks?

[spectda]

Do you know what your stage (liver damage if any) and grade (inflammation) are? If not, I would want to know specific numbers. Doctors have different opinions of what minimal is. good luck with tx, you have a lot of company on the board going through it right now.
Dave

[yoyoma123]

this website is so helpfullll. THank you guys, you are all amazing. Thanks for the support

[copyman]

looks like you should start treatment then.

remember to do a 4 week pcr test

if you are undetectable at 4 weeks then you could stop at 24 weeks and then test again post 12 weeks & 24 weeks to make sure you remain cleared. If you relapse then you can try the new drugs later on.

Best of luck and keep us posted on how treatment is going

[yoyoma123]

I know about telaprevir. But here in Dominican no insurance covers the treatment. Its 15,000 dollars the treatment here for 48 weeks. Thank God I have some  good contacts and got in a government insurance somehow and they are paying for the treatment so I have to start now. I can't wait for next year right now, thats why I'm asking all these questions.

[copyman]

I agree with Isobella about waiting for the new drugs coming out. I was in a study with the new drugs and did a shortened course of treatment. I had around the same VL as you and also a Genotype 1a. There is a very good possibility that if someone clears at 4 weeks  they will attain SVR with only 24 weeks. The studies that have been done were with low VL's but I think if they had used higher VL's there wouldn't be much of a difference and those would have been cured the same or very close %.
Unde at 4 weeks is the #1 predictor of SVR. Not many people that are clear at 4 weeks relapse, no matter what the starting VL is. This is of course if they finish tx and do all the meds as prescribed.
Best of luck

[Isobella]

If you are in great shape liver-wise and only want to treat 24 weeks, why not wait until next year and do triple therapy?

Being geno 1 and with a high viral load, I personally wouldn't risk it.  You only want to do this once if you can help it.

I did ask my hepa the same though for my daughter because her vl was only 400,000.  She wouldn't consider it.  We just went in for our check ups and she encouraged us to wait.  

I thought (briefly) of stopping at 36 weeks after becoming UND, but stuck with it.  By that time, I figured I had invested that much time into getting rid of this virus I might as well fight to the end.

Good luck to you.

Isobella

[Diane12855]

I just answered your other post, and asked your viral load... now I know it.

I heard one doctor say that he had heard of some doing that, but he didn't want to take the chance of a relapse with his 1a patients so he always makes them do 48 weeks to be safe.

Hopefully others will chime in with more info for you that I don't have.