Hep A cures Hep C????????????????????

[Diane12855]

Did anybody see House last night? I always knew that a lot of the stuff on that show was way off in left field but last night was even more so.. The patient was diagnosed with Hep C. He was told that he could have gotten it sexually, IV drugs or from snorting cocaine... actually I was glad about the mention of the coke since it first looked like they were going to only tell about the sexual and IV transmission. When are these people going to learn that it isn't sexually transmitted? THEN...they gave the guy IV Interferon and after a few hours said it wasn't working...... OH! Also they said you could have Hep C and all tests come back negative. The guy was yellow and they were saying that if they didn't find a cure he would die in a short time. What was the cure? They infected him with Hep A saying that there was an 80% chance of it killing him, but it could kick his immune system into overdrive and it could kill off both of the viruses.

I don't really know my point of posting this... It just amazes me at what they put on TV for people to watch... You just know that many people who see that take it to be correct.

Diane

[nygirl7]

Oh and his squishy little stress bouncy ball too!   ;)

[nygirl7]

Actually the man is presented as the worlds greatest diagnostician. "

Yes he is but it takes him 40 minutes, 22 guesses, a chart and his team for him to get 1,000 miles away from Lupus and to the final answer.

[banarep]

I got to go with Figuy here:  it is televison.  On another show, I was watching the good guy fight an alien,  that did not happen either.

[Diane12855]

Actually the man is presented as the worlds greatest diagnostician. Yes there are a lot of gullible people out there... but they don't deserve to take their diagnosis of hep c as a death sentence.

Obviously educated people realize that they shouldn't take what they see on TV as fact, but there are lots of people who aren't very well educated. My ex mother-in-law was one of them. Every time I saw her she was telling me about some new thing she had learned on TV that she believed was the answer to her woes.

Diane

[Trinity4]

Really though, when you think about it, we all know House is a pill head.  Regardless of intelligence, the man is an addict and that is going to effect his judgement, long or short term. Now, the writers make no secret of this so if the viewing public chooses to believe everything they see on that show then it's their bad.  Their stupid!

[merryBe]

I had several doctors say a coinfection could kill me.

Paying attention to the episode, the chance it would kill was 85%.

Hardly a ringing endorsement to use it as therapy.

It was given as a last resort to kick the immune system into such a high gear that it would kill or cure.  But 5 to one against is whacked.

They also had many inaccurate things in the episode.

For instance, an acute phase does not often result in death. The assumption was the guy snorted with this guy...then gets deathly ill, but cannot be stabalized, is not a candidate for transplant, nothing??  Just give him another disease and hope the body goes into hyperdrive so hard it kills most???

Look, I appreciate TV shows trying to make people aware of things...like not sharing straws....but think what this misinformation is doing to the general public. Based on this show, I would conclude Hep C is fatal, quickly, and their are no good options for treatment. How could anyone conclude otherwise?

Usually 'House" writers are not this ignorant, but they really blew it for the sake of the "shock treatment MO" they've become famous for.
They are doing the public as much disservice as service IMHO.

I suppose they will counter that if folks are stupid enough to get their medical info from House or their news from talk show hosts they deserve what they get.
Yet I'd hate to be the writer that freaked someone into thinking something was incurable and not seeking any help as a result of those misperceptions.

mb