Treatment Guidelines

[Beemo]

My son started on the Interferon/Riboviran treatment for Hep C Genotype 2 in late Oct. 2009 which was about 2 years after he was diagnosed.  He says he contracted the virus about 3 years prior to any treatment.  Blood was drawn about 4 weeks after treatment was started showing his viral load was cut by about 60 percent.  His treatment was stopped after 12 weeks but no blood was drawn prior to that decision being made.  He was told that he was not responding to the treatment.  How can that decision be made if no recent blood sample had been taken and that the previous sample showed he was responding?  He is an inmate in a privately owned prison that houses only California inmates.  He had been transferred from another privately owned prison in Az. where the treatment started.  The physican in the Az. prison is the one who ordered the treatment stopped.  I am trying to get something in writing to show that this decision does not follow within the accepted guidelines for treatment of his form of Hepititis.  I believe the Dr. in Az. may have made this decision not realizing he did not have a 12 week blood sample.  My son is 43 years old and in otherwise good health.  He has not had any symptoms of Hep C nor has he had any side effects from the treatments.  One thing has occured, he presently has several kanker (sp) sores in his mouth but this may or may not be related to the treatment.  He had a similar episode when he was about 12 years old.   Thank you for your help.

[mj6000]

How many years will he be in prison? Hepatitis is a slow progressing disease and if he hasn't had it very long he could treat when he gets out. Do you know the stage of his liver damage? With little or no damage yet he should be ok for some time,if not years. I do believe he should treat again with a good Dr as soon as he's able. I hope someone out there knows a prisoner advocacy group he or you could contact.

[nygirl7]

The mouth sores are most likely related to the interferon when you are on treatment but after about a week or two when the interferon leaves your body so should they.

It seems the prison system didn't want to pay for his treatment, something I heartedly disagree with considering how much rampant hcv is in the jail system.  My husband was in and out all of his life (dead now) and they always just told him he was fine and didn't need to treat because his liver enzymes were good (Uh yes he wasn't drinking or doing drugs in jail so his liver did have some downtime).

Anyway - as you realize the cost of treatment is exorbitantly staggering I'm sure you know why they did this to him.  Yes, I cannot imagine how they could consider stopping treatment without a 12 week PCR to see if he had cleared. While a 60% reduction at week 4 is pretty slow he was responding and increasing the dosage of riba might have done something positive about getting him to UND.

My best bet the doctor just didn't care.

Hopefully since you son is young and living a liver healthy lifestyle right now (whether by choice or not!) he will have a chance to treat again.

I wish you all the best.  As someone who's been there (although it wasn't my son which is heartbreaking) I do know the frustration and heartache you are going through and I hope somehow you can  get this situation resolved and perhaps he can attempt to treat again.

I'll leave it to the smart guys in here to give you any stats or things. I'm kind of just all about the heart (cause I'm not as smart ;)

Good luck!

[newleaf09]

AASLD is an organization of liver disease specialists who publish annual treatment guidelines.  Google AASLD 2009 hepatitis C treatment guidelines to find a copy.  

The mouth sores are a sign that the main drug, interferon, is reducing his white blood cell level.  There are medications to counteract that but they are very very expensive and that may have had a role in their decision.