Day 93 Night - Yorkshire Evening Post Hep C Article: Protease Inhibitors As A Ray Of Light

In the Yorkshire Evening Post on November 2, Katie Baldwin wrote a great article on the advancements in Hepatitis C Treatment and the new Protease Inhibitors. Although they are the cause of my most severe side effects, they also are the essential ingredient in the treatment recipe that is going to cure me. 

Here is a bit of the article excerpted below about the new drugs which represents a ray of light for patients facing tough treatment:

Being told she had hepatitis C could not have come as more of a shock to Wendy. She hadn’t even heard of the condition when she was diagnosed. Wendy was diagnosed in April after she went to her doctor with stomach pains and underwent tests. “They tested me and it came back positive for hepatitis C. I had never heard of it and I was totally shocked,” the 50-year old mother said. “I started to look on the internet and scared myself silly.”

Wendy had never done anything that may have put her at risk of hepatitis C, such as injecting drugs or having a tattoo. Following more tests, she started treatment a few months after diagnosis. The side effects have been difficult and unpredictable, sleep problems, itchiness, dry mouth and difficulties with thinking straight and concentrating... The illness is caused by a virus which affects the liver and can cause cirrhosis or liver cancer, with it being a leading reason for liver transplants...

Dr Mark Aldersley, consultant hepatologist at St James’s Hospital in Leeds, said the majority of patients had injected drugs at some point. Transmission through sexual contact is possible but the risk is very low. 


(But with Pamela Anderson as the poster girl and the bad info available on the Internet, the actual risk of sexual transmission is overplayed to the point of absurdity. Actual cases of heterosexual transmission are extremely rare. I was infected throughout the five years of my marriage, having unprotected sex with my ex-wife who was on birth control, and she does not have the virus.)

Pamela Anderson: Dangerous And Slanderous Beyond Sex Tapes

Treatment for hepatitis C is currently arduous and not all that effective. It involves both injections and tablets and for those with the most difficult to treat type, only provides a cure in up to 50 per cent of cases. “The side effects from the drugs make you feel very unwell, like you have got flu,” Dr Aldersley added.

Because hepatitis C is such a widespread problem around the world, pharmaceutical companies are investing heavily in developing new treatments. Around 60 new drugs are in development and one of those has now become available. Taken alongside current treatments, the new protease inhibitors are much more effective. “It increases the chances of being cured by possibly 20 to 50 percent more than previous drugs,” Dr Aldersley said. “It’s quite a big advance in terms of success rates, though still difficult to take. It’s going to make you feel unwell with the other treatment but it’s certainly a big step forward.”

While the previous treatment gave patients around a 40 percent chance of being cured, this new drug increases that to 70 or 80 percent... Wendy said anything that improved cure rates was good news. “I think it’s fantastic,” she said. “I just needed to do it straight away so I was not interested in waiting, but I think it’s brilliant.”

Charles Gore, chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, said: “Hepatitis C can be a devastating disease, however if treated successfully, patients can avoid life-threatening liver problems such as further liver damage, cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer. The arrival of protease inhibitors is the first major treatment advance in more than 10 years and a significant step forward for the hepatitis C community.”

Protease Inhibitors: Opening The Hepatitis C Treatment Window

It is a good introductory piece that shows how the window of potential effective treatments for Hepatitis C is open wide. I am part of a clinical trial for the new protease inhibitors, and I am the only one in my specific segment of the trial with bad side effects. C'est La Vie! But rather than complain, I am grateful for the opportunity to be cured of this shitty virus. Over 160 million people worldwide are infected with the disease and up to 6 million in the United States. If only half of them end up with severe problems like cirrhosis and cancer, that's a hell of a lot of livers that will be needed for transplants. New research and affordable care options are not a luxury, but a necessity.