The most Hep C infested country in the world is Egypt, where about 10% of the population have the disease, a consequence of a poorly executed humanitarian effort against a water borne parasite that had crippled Egypt since the time of the Pharaohs.
It is an awesome drug. I’m almost half way through a 24 week therapy. My liver panel test from last month showed after 60 days of treatment, my liver panel test shows my liver back to mid-normal range. Prior to treatment, they were 4-5 times higher.
I tried the standard interferon treatment twice and the infection came back as soon as I stopped taking the medicine. The side effects of the interferon was terrible. It changes you emotionally, physically and I believe it changes you for life. Terrible stuff. When you hear the phrase “the cure is worse than the disease”, they were talking about interferon.
The Sovaldi treatment has none of those nasty side effects and as I progress, instead of feeling worse, I have more energy than I have had in 15 years and I am cautiously optimistic, we will kill the virus this time.
I contracted the disease the best we can tell, either from a blood transfusion in 1968 or a tattoo I got in a seedier part of Seattle back in 1978. Either way, that was a long time ago and now even with the treatment, my liver is functioning on 11% due to the non-alcoholic cirrhosis my liver has developed.
The doctors believe I will gain more use after we kill the virus due to the fact the liver can replicate itself.
I am thankful to Gilead and their awesome research staff located at Stanford University!