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

[copyman]

wow! interesting stuff. I was always told that Hep A could be deadly if you get it with HCV. This was the reason the hep doc made me get the vaccine for A & B.

The funny thing is it sounds possible that it could work. But I don't like the 80% chance of it killing the person.

By the way it can be transmitted sexually, although rare it does happen. Especially in the gay community with anal sex.

[willbb]

Gee.. its hard enough for people to understand this disease as it is without T.V putting out so many  misnomers .

Just my thought

[nygirl7]

I had to give up watching House after too many lupus diagnoses and using interferon for everything from the common cold to hepc. Always the same same same same same same misinformation given out and it started to irk me too much to handle anymore.

Just think of all the people at home thinking cool if I get hepc all i have to do is a few hours of interferon or go out and eat a bad fish bone.  ;)

[Trinity4]

Yeah, and House is addicted to Vicodin.  He and Nurse Jackie must be good friends and discuss treatment options often over coffee and Vicodin.

Trinity

[nygirl7]

You'd think after all these years he's have moved up to oxy's at least.....vicodin, namby pamby ;)

[Trinity4]

Heehee.  I watched the episode when they cut his scripts off and he started jonsing.
He stole a dying cancer patients percs for the pharmacy and OD.  I was thinking what the hell, you have access to all kinds of dope and steal percs and then OD?  Not very savvy for a doctor.  

[FlGuy]

It's television.  

[fretboard]

I wonder who their doctor is who fills them in on diseases.  Must be a pill doctor who don't know didley squat! lol All hospital type shows are supposed to have experts advising them on various procedures and diseases.  Someone on this forum should apply for a job with them! lol

I wish I was a high powered attorney, I would give them a call and tell them off just for practice!!  lol

[frijole]

I saw that show last night.  I thought that was really bizarre when they put IV interferon into the man and waited for the miraculous cure.  How funny was that.  And then the Hep A thing which was based on some kind of trial in Switzerland or somewhere.  I googled but could find nary a thing.

Couldn't figure why they didn't give him a liver biopsy if he was not serum positive.  Shades of occult virus - but never knew the occult could be so deadly.

I truly don't think we will ever be understood.  That goodness for this forum.

frijole

[Bali05]

"it's television"

and it`s for ENTERTAINMENT !!!!!

[nygirl7]

HA snark I saw the one where he was jonsing too isn't that the one where he thought he was having an affair with Cuddy or was that antoher one ( actually I think it was more than one episode but I kind of had given up by the end of that season when they locked him in the nuthatch (where he always should have been). Whichever episode I bet their first diagnosis guess was Lupus that damn lupus they think everyone has it.

Start that IV Interferon STAT!

[Bill1028]

Maybe House was treating Natalie Cole.

[Magnum]

Believe half of what you hear, and doubt the other half is a good motto in this case..

Magnum

[orphanedhawk]

House is fiction. The things House does are laughable and the plot is pure soap opera.
Either enjoy it or turn it off.

I got bored of it myself after the umpteenth time he misdiagnosed for 45 minutes before doing open brain surgery and discovering it was only an allergic reaction. Oops!

BTW: Don't ya think this should be on the social side of the forum ?

[sunshines76]

What in the world is House? ;) Never heard of this show... There is plenty of stupid stuff on TV, just ignore it. Let them be what they are and target the audience of their own - ignorant and arrogant... I am not going to turn my TV and look for House just to find out what it is - that would just be another point for their ranking. No, sir, let them sink down to the deepest bottom, slowly but surely :)

[mikesimon]

This and about a half dozen other threads perhaps.

Mike

[CoWriter]

It's actually true.  It can happen.

Co


Dig Liver Dis. 2009 May

Clearance of HCV RNA following acute hepatitis A superinfection.

Cacopardo B, Nunnari G, Nigro L.
Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, Catania, Italy.

Abstract
A transient reduction of hepatitis C virus replication during the course of acute hepatitis A virus infection has already been reported in the literature. The present study reports the case study of a subject with chronic hepatitis due to hepatitis C virus who went on to develop an acute hepatitis A. From the early onset of acute disease, hepatitis C virus ribonucleic acid became undetectable. Following recovery from acute hepatitis, alanine amino-transferase levels became persistently normal and liver biopsy revealed a reduction in the Knodell histological activity index score. Hepatitis C virus ribonucleic acid clearance was maintained up to 4 years after the onset of acute hepatitis A. During the course of the acute disease, a sharp increase in interferon gamma levels was detected in serum and in the supernatant of both unstimulated and phytoemagglutinin/lipopolysaccharide-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Interferon gamma levels were still high 3 months later. We hypothesize that acute hepatitis A virus superinfection during the course of chronic hepatitis C may lead to hepatitis C virus ribonucleic acid clearance through an immunological mechanism related to interferon gamma production.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18182335

[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

[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!

[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

[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.

[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.

[nygirl7]

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

[Dee1956]

This was a very funny thread, thanks to all who participated