NZ Hepatitis C transplant patient and their journey.
“In a way it was stink, but it saved me.”
The Blenheim man received a donated liver in July 2007 after being diagnosed with hepatitis C a year earlier. The gratitude he feels to the woman whose liver saved his life has been a powerful incentive to make the most of every day and look after his body.
Through the donor co-ordinator, he has written to the donor’s family telling them he is really well and thanking them for the gift of new life.
Mr Maxwell was 17 when he contracted hepatitis C by sharing needles – a stupid mistake of youth that came close to killing him 30 years later.
The disease was discovered in 2006 after a crash while racing downhill on his pushbike. X-rays picked up not only two cracked vertebrae but also an abnormal liver.
“In a way it was stink, but it saved me.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/features/focus/4328870/The-gift-of-life
More news from Melbourne clinic hepatitis C Infections
SHATTERED victims have told how their lives have been ruined by a rogue, drug-addicted anaesthetist who is accused of infecting them with hepatitis C
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/how-hep-c-doctor-ruined-his-victims-lives/story-e6frf7kx-1225945890664
First charges Melbourne Hepatitis C Infections
Detectives have charged the director of nursing at Croydon Day Surgery with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The Age has been told that Carol Richards would have been present at many of the proceedures undergone by women who were infected with the virus. She also had responsibility for many of the procedures used at the day surgery.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/hepatitis-c-outbreak-woman–charged-20101125-18835.html
re brand Hepatitis C ” the anesthetist disease”
Funny thing someone said to me how unique this Melbourne case was I laughed
AP Features, May 15th, 2007
A Spanish anesthesiologist with hepatitis C was sentenced to prison Tuesday for infecting 275 people with the virus by injecting them with morphine from the same needles he used to feed his own addiction.
http://www.bookrags.com/news/morphine-addicted-spanish-moc/
More information on Protease Inhibitors
Vertex Files for Hep C Drug Approval
The timing of the telaprevir approval filing to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was widely expected. Vertex asked FDA for priority review, which if granted, would mean an approval decision could be made by June 2011.
Telaprevir, if approved, will shorten treatment and improve cure rates for patients infected with the Hep C virus. For Hep C patients new to treatment, telaprevir combined with the current standard treatment of long-acting interferon and ribavirin achieved cure rates of 75% in a phase III study, compared to about 40% of patients treated with the standard treatment alone.
More than half of these patients were able to achieve a cure in six months, or about half the time of currently used treatment regimens.
In the other major phase III study enrolling Hep C patients who failed to respond to prior treatment, telaprevir also induced significantly higher cure rates compared to standard therapy.
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10929835/1/vertex-files-for-hep-c-drug-approval.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN
I like to see positive news about long term health post treatment good news I guess.
Hepatitis C Treatment improves health long term
Achieving sustained virologic response after treatment for hepatitis C is a boon to patients even 20 years down the road, researchers said here.
In a cohort of patients who started treatment at the National Institutes of Health in 1984, none who achieved sustained response developed hepatocellular carcinoma, and all had improved measures of liver function in the long run, reported Chester Koh, MD, of the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and colleagues.
http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/AASLD/23132
The surgeon knows best
I was a talking to a local surgeon the other day, She was very articulate on blood transfusions, She would not give them unless absolutely necessary , We now know about hepatitis C and other BBV but there may be other risks to the blood supply we don’t know about and test for yet so its still risky, I try to avoid giving blood transfusions to my patients .
Best of health
www.hcv.org.nz