Hepatitis C Is It Curable

Can I Get Reinfected With Hepatitis C

If you become infected with hepatitis C infection and then clear the virus , yes, it is possible for you to become infected again.

The chance of another infection with hepatitis C is much, much less than the chance of a first-time infection, but it is not impossible. It has happened in people who continue to use injection drugs, and some studies suggest that it happens even more often in people who are also HIV positive.

In other words, having had hepatitis C once does not make you “immune” to getting hepatitis C again.

The best way to avoid reinfection is to reduce risky behaviors that can result in exposure to the hepatitis C virus: Do not use injection drugs, do not share needles for any reason, avoid blood-to-blood exposures with others, and use condoms if you are sexually active with a new partner or with a partner who has used injection drugs.

The research in this area is ongoing, and we will continue to learn more about this very important topic. But for now, preventing re-exposure to the hepatitis C virus is the only sure way of avoiding infection and reinfection with hepatitis C.

Is Hep C Curable

Yes. The good news is that chronic Hepatitis C virus is usually curable with oral medications taken every day. Antiviral drugs can cure more than 90 percent of people with chronic hepatitis C after 12 weeks of treatment.

If severe complications have occurred from chronic hepatitis C, a liver transplant may be necessary. This alone does not cure the infection, as it commonly recurs after transplantationbut in conjunction with antiviral medications, it can be curative.

The key to effective treatment is early diagnosis. Give us a call if you suspect they may have come into contact with the virus, or if you are experiencing any of the symptoms of hepatitis C.

What Does High/low Viral Load Mean

Viral load is the amount of virus present in the bloodstream. It is expressed as the amount of viral genetic material per milliliter of blood. The amount of virus does not predict how severe the liver disease is or will become. The level of the viral load does not tell us anything about the risk of liver damage or how sick someone is. In hepatitis C, it matters if virus is present or absent. Some treatment regimens can be shortened if the patient has a low viral load to start with, but most often, treatment regimens are the same for people with high hepatitis C viral loads or low viral loads.

The RNA test is essential for making the diagnosis of hepatitis C infection–having a positive RNA test is the definition of having infection. After the diagnosis is made, the RNA level does not need to be checked over and over unless it is checked during the time that the patient is undergoing treatment. During treatment, regular RNA tests are done to follow the dropping virus level until it reaches an undetectable state. But before treatment and after treatment, repeated RNA testing is not necessary.

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Is Hepatitis C Curable For Everyone

Yes. Hepatitis C is curable. Most people with acute hepatitis C can clear it with antivirals and a healthy immune system.

Refrain from using alcohol while being treated for hepatitis C your liver already has its work cut out for it. Most cases of hepatitis C are curable in a few months with the help of antiviral pills. Hepatitis C, like many viruses, may technically resolve on its own but to reduce the chances of developing more severe conditions, its recommended that hepatitis C patients follow a doctor-recommended treatment.

How Should I Take Care Of Myself If I Have Hepatitis C

Good health habits are essential for those who have hepatitis C. You should especially avoid alcohol and medicines and drugs that can put stress on the liver. You should eat a healthy diet and start exercising regularly. Your family doctor can help you plan a diet that is healthy and practical.

Talk to your doctor about any medicines that you are taking, including over-the-counter medicine. Many medicines, including acetaminophen , are broken down by the liver. Because of this, they may increase the speed of liver damage. You should also limit alcohol use. It speeds the progression of liver diseases like hepatitis C. An occasional alcoholic drink may be okay, but check with your doctor first.

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Which Drugs Can Cure Hepatitis C Virus

Several agents are available by prescription in the U.S. that can lead to a sustained virologic response , considered a cure for HCV.

Drug combination antivirals for HCV treatment, often taken as one daily dose, are now approved to ease treatment regimens and tend to be more tolerable.

The newer direct-acting antiviral agents medications to treat HCV include:

Learn more: Oral Hepatitis C Treatments: The Evolving Landscape

Hepatitis C virus is transmitted through contact with infected blood. It can lead to chronic liver disease like cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death. Symptoms of chronic HCV may not appear for 20 to 30 years after infection.

It is important to seek medical testing and treatment for hepatitis C so you can help prevent its spread and have adequate medical care, if needed. Fifteen to twenty percent of people may eliminate the HCV virus completely from their body within 6 months, but most people remain infected and develop chronic hepatitis C.

If you were born from 1945 through 1965, or are at increased risk for HCV infection for other reasons like sharing drug injection equipment, speak to your doctor about being tested for HCV.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends a one-time hepatitis C test for all adults 18 years of age and older and all pregnant women for each pregnancy. CDC continues to recommend people with risk factors, including people who inject drugs, be tested regularly.

Chronic Phase Of Hepatitis C

After six months 70% to 85% of those infected will have failed to clear the virus spontaneously. After this period the hepatitis C virus enters what is known as the chronic phase. This is when hepatitis C becomes a chronic or long-term infection. The diagnosis is confirmed when over a six month period hepatitis C RNA viral presence is detectable on at least two occasions.

A diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C means the battle between the virus and the immune system that occurs during the acute stage has finally been won by the virus. It is now highly unlikely that the virus can be cleared without treatment.

How the disease then progresses varies significantly from person to person. After many years some people will have minimal liver damage with no scarring while others can progress to cirrhosis within less than ten years. On average it takes about twenty years for significant liver scarring to develop. It is still not known whether chronic hepatitis C infection inevitably leads to cirrhosis. At present it is thought that this is a very likely outcome, although for some people it may take at least 50 years or more. They may well die of other unrelated diseases or conditions before cirrhosis develops. The rate of progression of liver damage cannot be accurately determined by liver enzyme levels, viral load or by genotype.

Liver damage and fibrosis during the chronic stage

Free Radicals and Fibrosis

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Can You Get Hepatitis C More Than Once

Luckily hepatitis C is curable, especially if youre getting tested regularly and catch your infection early.

Unfortunately, someone who has been cured of the virus in the past is still subject to possible exposure and infection again in the future. Unlike some viruses, you can still contract hepatitis C after youve already been infected prior. Even if you have been infected prior, keep yourself as healthy as possible, avoiding situations that put you at risk of infection.

How Are Hepatitis B And C Treated

Hepatitis B: Not all patients with chronic hepatitis B infection require treatment. At Yale Medicine, specialists decide on an individual basis whether a patient is an appropriate candidate for treatment. Generally, patients require treatment when their hepatitis B virus level is high, and when laboratory tests demonstrate significant inflammation or injury to the liver.

There are currently seven approved drugs for hepatitis B, two of which are considered to be first-line treatments. These drugs are oral pills taken once daily, and while they’re very effective at suppressing the virus to very low or undetectable levels over the long term, they are not considered curative.

Therefore, the goal of treatment is to control the virus long-term and decrease the risk of hepatitis B related complications such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Hepatitis C: For the greater part of the last 20 years, treatment of hepatitis C required the use of a chemotherapy-like injection drug called interferon, which has been associated with serious side effects and a low cure rate. Fortunately, advances in hepatitis C treatments within the last three years now allow for the use of oral medications that are significant improvements in terms of safety and effectiveness.

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What You Need To Know About Sustained Virologic Response

If youve been researching hepatitis C, you may have heard about sustained virologic response . A virologic response refers to the presence of the hepatitis C virus being detected in the blood. If the virus cannot be detected in the blood after at least 12 weeks post-treatment, then a sustained virologic response has been achieved.

Having an SVR is essentially what it means to be cured of hepatitis C! Approximately 99% of people who experience a sustained virologic response live without the virus. Hepatitis C only returns in fewer than one percent of patients who achieve SVR. And, in many cases, that virus is actually the result of a new infection .

Once you achieve SVR you are no longer contagious, additional liver damage ceases, and liver function may improve. Not only does achieving SVR mean the virus is gone, but it also stops the progression of liver disease and other risks and complications associated with liver damage.

If you have been diagnosed with hepatitis C, help is available! Take action with your doctor today.

Is There A Way To Prevent Hepatitis C

Although currently theres no vaccine to protect people from contracting hepatitis C, there are vaccines for other hepatitis viruses, including hepatitis A and hepatitis B.

If you receive a hepatitis C diagnosis, your healthcare provider may advise you to get vaccinated against hepatitis A and B.

The vaccinations are recommended because these hepatitis viruses can lead to additional health and liver complications, especially in those with preexisting liver disease.

Since you cant prevent hepatitis C through a vaccine, the best prevention is to avoid exposure. Hepatitis C is a bloodborne pathogen, so you can limit your chances of exposure through these healthy lifestyle practices:

• Avoid sharing needles, razor blades, or nail clippers.
• Use proper safety precautions if youll be exposed to bodily fluids, such as when performing first aid.
• Hepatitis C isnt usually transmitted through sexual contact, but its possible. Limit your exposure by practicing sex with a condom or other barrier method. Its also important to openly communicate with sexual partners and to get tested if you suspect youve been exposed to the hepatitis C virus.

Because hepatitis C is transmitted through blood, its possible to contract it through a blood transfusion.

However, since the early 1990s, blood product screening tests have been standard protocol for minimizing the risk of this type of transmission.

Subsequent testing is based on risk. Talk to your doctor about your needs.

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Im Cured A Story About Overcoming Hepatitis C In Argentina

For World Hepatitis Day, Diego Villoldo relates how he overcame the hepatitis infection. A journey from despondent resignation to a new lease of life.

Buenos Aires, July 2019 Im cured, said Diego Villoldo with a big smile after getting the results of his treatment for hepatitis C, which he received at a hospital in the city of Buenos Aires. Diagnosed in 2007, it had been a long and at times rocky road, but within three months the new revolutionary treatment allowed him to look toward a bright new future now devoted to his interest in music.

I am a luthier. I make string instruments, so I have always been connected with music through my work, but I started to think more seriously about what I want to do. I knew that I wanted to play music, so thats what Im doing, said Diego, who works in a shop in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo.

Today, he says that he has always looked forward in life, but a few years ago all that changed dramatically when recieved his diagnosis. When I found out that I had hepatitis C, I started drinking and resigned myself to live the however many days of life I had left, but a year later I had an accident where I fell from the second floor and was in intensive care for 11 days. I left hospital with a new lease of life knowing that I had gotten a second chance, he recalls.

When I found out that I had hepatitis C, I started drinking and resigned myself to live however many days of life I had left.

Outcomes And Hcv Treatment

There is no treatment recommended for acute hep C infection however, patients should be monitored to see if the infection becomes chronic. Chronic hepatitis C can cause liver cancer or cirrhosis and is the most common reason for liver transplants in this country. The CDC estimates that of every 100 people infected with HCV, 75 to 85 will develop chronic infection, and 10 to 20 will develop cirrhosis within 20 or 30 years. Of 100 people who have hepatitis C and have developed cirrhosis, between three and six will develop liver failure each year and between one and five will develop liver cancer each year. There were 18,153 deaths related to HCV reported to the CDC in 2016, but this is likely an underestimate.

A whole new class of medication, called direct-acting antivirals , was introduced in 2011. The first two drugs to be introduced — boceprevir and telaprevir — improved the outcomes dramatically but still required patients to take interferon. About 70% of patients achieved sustained virologic response on the first generation of DAAs.

Then in 2014, Gilead Sciences introduced ledipasvir/sofosbuvir , which had a 99% SVR rate with a 12-week regimen and did not need to be combined with interferon injections. Newer DAAs have been introduced since that time, including sofosbuvir/velpatasvir and sofosbuvir/velpatasvir/voxilaprevir , also made by Gilead, elbasvir/grazoprevir by Merck, and glecaprevir/pibrentasvir from AbbVie.

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How Is Hepatitis C Treated

Acute hepatitis C is a short-term illness that can occur within the first six months after being exposed to the virus. The modes of infection are via sexual intercourse, needle stick injury, infected blood transfusion, infected organ transplant, dialysis or a mother to her child during delivery. People are also at risk if they have engaged in high-risk behaviors like intravenous drug use, shared needles or had unprotected sex.

In many cases, early hepatitis C infection can clear on its own without treatment in about one in four individuals. This is especially possible in younger people. The treatment options for hepatitis C include

Antiviral medications

These are the mainstay of treatment against hepatitis C. The treatment aims to have no detected hepatitis C virus in the body at least 12 weeks after treatment.

The “direct-acting” antiviral medications are given over 12 weeks. These are combination medications and will cure early acute hepatitis C in more than 90 percent of people. They are

• Harvoni
• Viekira Pak

The choice of medications and length of treatment depend on the

• Hepatitis C genotype
• Presence of existing liver damage
• Co-existing medical conditions

Why Cure Hep C

Curing your hep C clears the virus from your body. It reduces liver inflammation and can help reverse fibrosis and even cirrhosis.

Live free from the worry of hep C knowing that you no longer have hep C can help you feel better about yourself. For example, you may no longer feel worried about passing hep C to other people. There has been no better time to think about hep C treatment.

Find out more about the benefits of clearing hep C call the Hepatitis Infoline.

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Can Hep C Be Cured Completely

Well, the good news is hepatitis C is curable. Though it is a chronic infection, recently developed drugs can clear the virus completely from the system. If the viral load is nil after three months of treatment completion, people are considered cured. This is called sustained virologic response and data suggest that, in these cases, people will stay virus-free for life.

However, people must remember that hepatitis C is a lot more than just liver disease. Hepatitis C is often associated with many medical complications, such as a heightened risk of developing kidney diseases and cancer in the future. The drugs used in the treatment are accompanied by adverse reactions like every other drug. Hence, prevention is the best cure in this case.

Intensive therapy with antivirals against hepatitis will significantly reduce the risk of liver failure, liver cancer and the need for a liver transplant. However, often, the disease causes severe liver scarring. This scarring of the liver is irreversible and can cause potential complications, such as liver failure. Hence, people with hepatitis C need lifelong monitoring.