Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - October 3, 2001
Tanya Pampalone, Of The Examiner Staff
If caught soon enough, hepatitis C, the liver damaging virus that affects 4 million Americans, can be cured, according to a group of researchers at Hanover Medical School in Germany.
The news was welcomed by local patients such as Cara Bruce, a sex educator who has been writing a book on the virus since contracting it last year.
"This is something that affects your life, your relationships," said Bruce.
"I'd give up a year of my life right now if I thought I could get rid of it."
But experts say that while the study is extremely promising, the hardest part of the equation is to catch the virus early on. Typically, symptoms -- such as jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain and loss of appetite -- are present in only 20 percent of those who are infected.
"It is good for people who have had a known exposure," said Dr. Tomas Aragon, director of epidemiology and disease control for the San Francisco Department of Public Health .
Aragon said this treatment could help those in the medical profession who have been stuck with a needle, or for a drug user who has shared a needle.
Almost 2 percent of Americans have hepatitis C, and many of them don't know it. In the nine days following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it is estimated that 530,000 Americans donated blood, and up to 10,000 of them will be notified by their blood banks that they have been infected with hepatitis C, and to a lesser extent, hepatitis B, according to the American Liver Foundation.
The 44 patients in the German study started therapy within an average of 89 days of catching hepatitis. They received daily interferon injections for four weeks and then for three times a week for 20 weeks. After 48 weeks, the virus was undetectable in all but one patient .
"They are dramatic findings," said Dr. Brian R. Edlin, director of the Urban Health Study at the University of California, San Francisco.
He added that the study provides strong evidence to support a policy of trying to identify people when they are first infected with hepatitis C so treatment can be provided.
Interferon has been used for years in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C, but it was found to be effective less than 50 percent of the time. Physicians normally monitor the progression of the disease in patients before they will prescribe the drug. If there is no evidence of liver damage, they will normally not treat with interferon.
This study could change all that.
Alan Brownstein, president of American Liver Foundation, is encouraged by the study but added that interferon treatment is not something to be taken lightly. It is a difficult and expensive therapy.
"It's not like taking a couple of aspirin and feeling better tomorrow," he said.
While some people experience no side effects, for others the side effects can be severe.
"I've heard it's like chemo," said Bruce . "One of the side effects is suicide, it can make your hair fall out, you can get depressed, your joints will ache."
While the research seems promising, she said, the real test will come two years down the line -- after researchers can prove that the virus doesn't resurface in those treated in the study.
The latest research was another victory for those treating and suffering from hepatitis C. In August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a combination treatment for chronic hepatitis C patients who suffer from liver disease. The treatment is expected to be available sometime this fall .
Hepatitis C has become much less common since 1992, when blood banks began screening for the virus. However, the virus remains the leading cause of chronic liver disease in the United States.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inAtlanta, the number of new infections each year declined from an average of 240,000 in the 1980s to 40,000 in 1998.
For more information and updates on hepatitis C, call the American Liver Foundation at 1-888-4-HEP-USA .
E-mail Tanya Pampalone at tpampalone@sfexaminer.com
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