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A comment on $1,000 Hepatitis Pill Shows Why Fixing Health Costs Is So Hard. Parent comment

Re:$1,000 Hepatitis Pill Shows Why Fixing Health Costs Is So... by carbocation on Monday August 04, 2014 @12:28AM (#8130331)
I'm a doctor. The running theme up until a couple years ago among my colleagues was that, if forced to choose HIV or hepatitis C, we'd choose HIV (because there is effective suppressive therapy). With modern HCV therapeutics for genotype 1a, and, in particular, thanks to the non-interferon therapy widely expected to be approved this fall, I would say that there has been a dramatic reversal of views on that topic.

Hepatitis C is a slow death sentence, and these drugs, based on studies to date, appear to be life saving.

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Re:$1,000 Hepatitis Pill Shows Why Fixing Health Costs Is So... by matt_morgan on Monday August 04, 2014 @08:01AM (#8131311)
> Hepatitis C is a slow death sentence

I don't understand that statement. I had Hep C and it was cured with interferon/ribavirin. It was a nasty treatment and I guess there are people who don't complete it, hence (probably) its reputation for uncertain effectiveness.

I absolutely would have preferred this new treatment, but if you had been able to tell me five years ago that I could take interferon & ribavirin now, or wait five years for a better treatment, I still would have completed the interferon/ribavirin treatment.

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Re:$1,000 Hepatitis Pill Shows Why Fixing Health Costs Is So... by carbocation on Monday August 04, 2014 @09:28AM (#8131614)
The cure rate for interferon/ribavirin is ~40%, whereas the cure rate for the new therapies is 97%+, even for those who have failed interferon/ribavirin.
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Re:$1,000 Hepatitis Pill Shows Why Fixing Health Costs Is So... by liverman on Monday August 04, 2014 @03:01AM (#8130669)
I have a liver disease that hasn't been diagnosed yet, doctors have not been able to pin it down, (seems similar to Wilsons disease) but it is a chronic liver disease. Is there any chance this medicine could help cure it? Up till now the only course of action has really been to just try to avoid further damage and wait for cirrhosis, which doesn't sound particularly fun :(

Sorry if this is a little like a stranger at a party asking about how to get rid of their warts :p

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Re:$1,000 Hepatitis Pill Shows Why Fixing Health Costs Is So... by pja on Monday August 04, 2014 @04:17AM (#8130787)
Sofosbuvir (Solvadi is the brand name of the pill) acts by inhibiting the viral RNA polymerase enzyme used by the Hep C virus, so unless your liver disease has a viral cause where the virus relies on an affected RNA polymerase this drug probably isn't going to help.
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Re:$1,000 Hepatitis Pill Shows Why Fixing Health Costs Is So... by Mz on Monday August 04, 2014 @01:40PM (#8132997)
There is probably a great deal more you can do than that, even without a diagnosis. A proper diagnosis would empower you to do yet more, even if doctors don't have the answers. You can do a lot to reduce the current load on your liver, to support the liver nutritionally, etc. That would improve your quality of life and extend your window for finding real solutions.
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