HEPATITIS C CAN BE DEFEATED IF VIABLY TREATED

By Raymond White

From PHN Issue 57, Summer 2024

In the year of 2010, while serving time in Fresno County Jail, I took an antibody blood test for hepatitis C (hep C). This was a mandated requirement for new prisoner arrivals. A few weeks after I had taken the test, I was called in for a primary clinician appointment. While I was talking to my health care provider, he stated that I had been exposed to hep C due to the mere fact that I had
shared a syringe needle with a partner a couple years back. Hep C is a viral infection that attacks and causes inflammation to the liver. After I was notified of my hep C diagnosis, I suddenly became mentally overwhelmed. I could not believe that I had contracted hep C. At the time of my diagnosis, there was not a cure, but treatment could decrease further significant damage to the liver. Pegylated forms of treatment could produce a sustained viral response, but this form of treatment caused many complications due to adverse effects. The FDA had not yet found a viable treatment effective for all genotypes.

It was then and there, when I was notified about my diagnosis, that I started taking more care of my body to prevent additional liver damage. Though my liver biopsy test had not yet shown significant liver scarring, I still had to protect myself. I had to practice safety measures like not consuming alcohol and avoiding certain foods that contained various acids. I avoided drug use and
exercised daily to keep my mind and body neutral and balanced. I had to find some way to ease the insurmountable grief, and I hoped every day that someday the FDA would create a 90% rate for a viable cure.

When a person has hep C, there are several ways to practice good health measures to avoid further liver damage: 1) Avoid alcohol. 2) Prohibit drug use. 3) Seek counseling for the prevention of spreading hep C. These solutions become critical to our well-being, and our health is important. We must remain mentally and physically intact to ensure that our bodies are healthy and functioning well. I wanted to ensure that my future health would be protected.

Around the year of 2021, when I was at California State Prison Sacramento in Folsom, I was placed on a waiting list for a 12-week treatment. Then, when accepted for a specific genotype treatment, I took a direct-acting antiviral (DAA) for three months. This type of medication has between a 90% and 95% rate in curing hep C infections. DAAs are antiviral drugs that activate
directly on hep C. Research suggests that these drugs cure between 90% and 95% of patients throughout the U.S. After my treatment was completed, I had a follow-up test to see how successful the medication had been. When the doctor told me that I no longer had hep C, a major weight was lifted off my shoulders after 11 long years of having this virus.

My body went through multiple complications when I had hep C, including painful symptoms I consistently experienced such as fatigue, joint pain, swelling, nausea, and abdominal pain. This was all cleared from me now, and I felt like my health had been relieved from an agony I consistently experienced for 11 years.

An estimated 2.7 to 3.9 million people are currently living with hep C in the U.S. Between 55% and 85% of individuals who are significantly infected will contend with chronic infection. Despite the dramatic changes my body went through during this long-term experience of the hep C infection, I surmounted the grief by being a trailblazer of positivity, hope, and optimism since day one. I looked past the daily anguish of having a virus that I thought I could never get rid of. No longer do I stress about the innumerable forms of misery I was subjected to once.

For future reference, if you have contracted hep C, follow these steps: Make sure you obtain significant information regarding your liver biopsy to find out how much scarring damage and inflammation is affecting your liver. Find out which of the six genotypes you fall under and seek treatment for that genotype immediately. Also, make sure you get tested for other illnesses that
affect the liver, like hepatitis B. If you don’t have hepatitis A or B, get vaccinated. And, above anything else, make sure you take good care of yourself and be very selective about what you consume.

Prison alone is a massive obstacle tying us down. Health issues are twice as critical in detention facilities because there are so many people enclosed in a potentially toxic setting. Just think about how many diseases you can be exposed to or contract if safety measures are not practiced. Take care of your body. It is vitally significant, and it carries you into the next day.