HEPATITIS
DOCTOR HOME since
October 1998
Welcome to patients with chronic viral hepatitis
B or C and to their loved ones. The FDA
approved
Incivek (telaprevir) May 23, 2011. It allows us to cure 2/3 of patients. Most will only need 24 weeks
of
treatment instead of 48 or longer since Incivek (telaprevir) rapidly reduces HCV-RNA. If you are
cured, your viral level falls to undetectable
during treatment and stays undetectable the rest of
your life, after
you stop the medications. If
your HCV-RNA level becomes detectable in your blood,
you were not cured. If your HCV-RNA is undetectable 6 months after your last injection of
interferon, you have a 99%
chance of permanent cure. Liver damage stops and liver healing starts.
This
improves survival and often restores health. You can read the PDF file of my
poster from AASLD,
that demonstrates improved survival
when HCV is cured. PDF file of AASLD poster
2011
I add information to this web site
as often as I can, and I want to make it a resource for patients whom
are often incorrectly told that they cannot be helped. The opinions expressed here
are entirely my
own, and are based on my experience in treating more
than 4,000 patients with hepatitis C.
I am especially excited about the new
oral medicines for patients with hepatitis C. I am a board
certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology.
In addition, I completed 2 years of residency
in pathology at Duke University Medical Center. I have been
a physician for 35 years. I spend about
95% of my time treating patients with chronic viral hepatitis
C. I enjoy helping as many patients as
possible cure this infection.
I am very excited about Incivek, the HCV protease inhibitor from
Vertex Pharmaceuticals . The
generic name is
.
It is
taken by mouth every 8 hours and drops the viral level by 99%
in two days. When combined with Pegasys plus ribavirin, it
greatly improves the cure rate in
genotype one patients. Telaprevir plus Pegasys and ribavirin eliminated HCV
in 75% of patients in the
ADVANCE study with only 24 weeks of therapy. This treatment was
successful in 62% of African-American patients and 62% of patients
with stage 3 or stage 4 fibrosis
(cirrhosis). Only 7% of patients had to stop the treatment because of
side effects. Another HCV
protease inhibitor, , from
Merck is also promising.
Incivek Prescribing
Information Link
My office: 1009A Dupont Square North, Louisville KY 40207 phone:
502-894-9950
Infergen 15 mcg daily plus
ribavirin eliminates HCV in about 10% of nonresponders
as demonstrated
in
the DIRECT Trial.
Ribavirin does not add much to the
fall in the viral level. It is the interferon that drives that response.
Ribavirin does not transform
a nonresponder into a responder. What ribavirin does is greatly
reduce
the chance of viral breakthrough (HCV-RNA falls with treatment,
but then rises even
though treatment is continuing) or relapse in patients
who respond to interferon. A relapser
is a
patient who became undetectable for HCV-RNA on her previous treatment,
but the virus came back
when the treatment ended.
The CDC now recommends that
Americans born between 1945 and 1965 be tested one time for HCV.
One third of persons with HCV die from
complications of cirrhosis. We can lower the death rate
from HCV if we are aggressive in identifying infected patients. Cure the
curable patients and lower
the death toll. Five million Americans are infected and we can cure
more than half of them with
Incivek, Pegasys and ribavirin.
I am an advocate for patients infected with HCV. The
medical insurance companies place too many
obstacles to block patients
from going on or staying on the medications. I have seen many curable
patients fail because of this. Medicaid
cancels Rx .
Stage 3 and stage 4 HCV liver disease is life threatening and
should be covered like cancer treatment,
coronary artery bypass surgery
and kidney dialysis. HCV cirrhosis is just as deadly as these other
life-threatening diseases. Insurance companies should not discriminate against treatment
of HCV,
just as they are forbidden to discriminate against treatment of HIV/AIDS.
I can give information, but cannot
practice medicine over the internet. Patients with HCV should
consult
a knowledgeable medical provider who treats large numbers of HCV infected
patients
Bennet Cecil, MD
03/24/2013 06:56 PM
You can find more HCV information in the links below and the links
on the left side of this page.
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