I am a 57-year-old white American male infected with Hepatitis C. I am involved in a controlled medical research study by Roche Pharmaceuticals of an experimental Polymerase Inhibitor (RO5024048 also known as RG7128) drug therapy for the virus. This document is the story of my illness and the experience of treatment. My lovely and pretty damn wonderful wife will be contributing her take on the experience as well.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

It Is Chemotherapy; It Is Not “Treatment.”

The statistics speak for themselves. Over 4,000,000 people are credibly estimated to have Hepatitis C in the USA. The research money devoted to finding a cure for Hepatitis C is about $20 per infected individual. As a counter example, about 500,000 people have HIV/Aids in the USA. The research money devoted to finding a cure for Aids is $2700 per infected individual. You do the math, research money in the USA for Aids: $1,350,000,000; research money in the USA for Hepatitis C: $80,000,000; fourteen times the money for ¼ the total number of patients.

I do not begrudge the money granted to research on AIDS. I do not begrudge the money granted to research cancer or heart disease or tuberculosis or any other life-threatening disease. All these diseases merit serious study. I am interested in why Hep C is so underrepresented in the research funding arena. A few thoughts have been knocking around my head concerning that area.

The closest disease example I can think of to Hep C is HIV. Both groups of people infected by the particular disease are stigmatized to one extent or another. The AIDS community was painted from the very beginning as promiscuous, drug using homosexuals – hard to beat that for a stigma in American society. Hep C has been characterized as a disease of drug users and needle sharers, another big no-no in the USA. Yet after about 3 or 4 years the AIDS community was well organized, aggressive, public and effective in lobbying the drug companies and the FDA. It took a long time and a lot of hard work, but they got a lot of attention, a lot of money and some effective treatments leading to a high rate of long-term survivors. One of the reasons that they were effective was that they were a unified, identifiable community, stigmatized or no, that was able to leverage their movement for gay rights onto the movement for HIV research and treatment. The out of the closet gay community led the way in publicizing the disease and the need for research.

Individuals infected with Hep C are spread across wider segments of society. They are present in larger numbers across various sexual, gender and racial segments of society and a lot of them are still in the closet, as it were, regarding their disease. While there are advocacy groups, support groups, web sites, etc. There is not a tight, vocal, aggressive group lobbying loud and hard for additional funding. We need to have an out of the closet group of Hep C infected being in your face about the situation regarding research and treatment.

Another problem we have is that Hepatitis C patients undergo “treatment” or enter “standard of care” or are in a “study” or are utilizing “alternative therapies.” We need to call a spade a spade here. Hepatitis C is fought using chemotherapy, not “treatment.” Calling it what it truly is magnifies the significance of what people with Hep C are going through. Everyone knows someone who has undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer or colon cancer or leukemia or prostate cancer and they all understand how serious and invasive it is. By referring to Hep C treatment as treatment or Standard of Care or therapy diminishes the seriousness of the disease itself and the regimen used for attacking the virus. We need to stop minimizing it. What we go through is not treatment; it is hard-core chemotherapy with all the attendant problems and side effects.

To use myself as an example once again, I am 9 months into chemotherapy for Hepatitis C. I inject 3 drugs on a weekly basis: Pegasys, Procrit and Neupogen. I take four additional drugs on a daily basis: Ribavirin, Celexa, Levothyroxine and Folic Acid. I take three additional drugs on an as needed basis: Trazadone, Tramadol and Ativan. I am using 10 different drugs to attack the Hep C virus and to manage the side effects of the drugs that are attacking it. If that does not qualify as chemotherapy, what the hell does?

I have side effects ranging from nausea, fatigue, hair loss, muscle pain, joint pain, fevers, rashes, night sweats, low white blood counts, anemia and brain fog (because of the brain fog, I’m sure I have forgotten some of the side effects). If that array of side effects does not indicate I am undergoing chemotherapy, again, what the hell does?

It is time to call what we endure to fight the Hepatitis C virus what it is: Chemotherapy. It is invasive, disruptive and long lasting. In fact Hep C chemo generally lasts for 48 weeks. That is considerably longer than the chemo and radiation regimens for a number of cancers and other diseases. This is a serious process.

Our disease is serious and ultimately fatal, our method of attacking it is a long course of difficult chemotherapy. It does neither our disease, our treatment or ourselves as patients any favors to be less than open about the seriousness of our disease and the long, difficult and exhausting regimen of chemotherapy we undergo to fight it. Let’s do ourselves the justice of calling it what it is.

Thanks for listening to the rant. I am on vacation for the next week and will have more bile when I return...

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for your blog. I am doing research on HepC and how it affects people and your honesty and humor have provided insight. Be good to yourself. You've also motivated me to take better care of myself (elevated ALT of 65 and 20 lbs overweight - I'm getting a Hep panel this Saturday and am committed to getting healthy). You've been an inspiration. Keep going!!!

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  2. I think this is the first time I've ever been called an inspiration. It's a bit unnerving, but that you for the compliment.
    I hope your research goes well and your Hep panel gives you the best news possible.

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  3. thanks for sharing. I did a year and had every side affect from vomiting daily, ulcers in my mouth, skin rashes, anemia, could not walk to the bathroom half the time I lost 60lbs and lost most of my hair.. I did have to have my thyroid removed afterward..a nasty after affect of the treatment.. but it worked for me. Hope it works for you too.

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  4. Wow - I am in total shock but not caught unaware. I am newly diagnosed - July 2012. I am 55, mother of 4, married 38 years and want to get old. At this time I have hidden my diagnosis to everyone except very immediate family. I have not shared with friends, inlaws or orther family, friends, church or God for that matter. Up to July I knew nothing about hep c. Now I have read 3 books and anything I can find on the Internet. Your document is what I have been looking for - frightening but straight forward and honest. Thank you. I am in the closet as though I am guilty. I am terrified of the future as much from the treatment as I am the stigma. I hope every day the stigma will change both for me and my family. Please continue with your writings - someone like me will be helped too.

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  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  6. i suffered loss of my hair,fatigue,muscle pain,fever and most importantly foggy brain bcz of whch i had to waste my 1 year in mbbs.

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  7. I Never believed i was ever going to be HIV Negative again,Dr Uroko has given me reasons to be happy, i was HIV positive for 2years and all the means i tried for treatment was not helpful to me, but when i came on the Internet i saw great testimony about Dr on how he was able to cure someone from HIV, this person said great things about this man, and advice we contact him for any Disease problem that Dr Uroko can be of help, well i decided to give him a try, he requested for my information which i sent to him, and he told me he was going to prepare for me a healing portion, which he wanted me to take for days, and after which i should go back to the hospital for check up, well after taking all the treatment sent to me by Dr Uroko, i went back to the Hospital for check up, and now i have been confirmed HIV Negative, friends you can reach Dr Uroko on any treatment for any Disease he is the one only i can show you all up to, reach him on (atitilovespell@gmail.com.com).

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