THE NATIONAL
HEPATITIS C INSTITUTE
The Hepatitis C Awareness & Prevention Campaign


Serving the Hepatitis C Community

 
A Few Facts

Hepatitis C advances slowly, especially in the first stages.  Stage 1 may take many years to get to a stage 4, cirrhosis. So, it's important to pinpoint how long you've had Hepatitis C.

The Hepatitis C virus doesn't harm the liver, it's the immune system causing damage to liver cells during the process of trying to rid the virus.

Hep C liver damage is
divided into 4 stages.
Stages of Hepatitis c
Click to enlarge
Hepatitis C is a very smart virus. It doesn't want to kill the host (you)......it simmers for many years.

Not everybody has to treat. If you've had Hep C for a long time and you're only a stage 1, most hematologists won't recommend treatment unless other symptoms are present called extrahepatic manifestations

1. Guidelines, according to the NIH, say that if treatment is working, treat for 1 year for genotype 1 and 24 weeks for genotype 2 or 3.

2. At 12 weeks of treatment, if the viral load has decreased by 2 logs then the treatment is working and you continue. If it hasn't decreased by at least 2 logs then the treatment is not working and you stop, because it usually won't work, even extending it to a year and a half.

What is a 2 log drop? Let's say that you start with a viral load of 1,000,000 (one million) a 2 log drop means you erase the two last zeros......so at 12 weeks of treatment your viral load should be <10,000 in order to continue treatment. If the viral load is not less than that, then it means the treatment is not working and should stop.

If you do well at 12 weeks, then by 24 weeks the viral load should be completely clear. At 36 weeks it should be clear and at 48 weeks clear. Then you stop the treatment. You're done. 6 months later you check again. If the virus isn't back then your chances that the virus won't be back are about 97%.