Hepatitis C New Zealand

May 7, 2010

New Zealand Hepatitis C Blog May 2010

Filed under: Hepatitis C New Zealand — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 5:48 pm

New Zealand Hepatitis C Blog May 2010

World Hepatitis Day, May 19, aims to raise global awareness of hepatitis B and hepatitis C and encourage prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
World Hepatitis Day is led by the World Hepatitis Alliance, which represents 200 patients groups and organizations
http://www.worldhepatitisday.org/en/Home.aspx

The Hepatitis Comics

Have a laugh with Lucinda K. Porter ‘s blog The Hepatitis Comics. Lucinda is hepatitis C positive and positively believes in the power of humour.

http://hepatitiscomics.blogspot.com/

Medical transmission of Hepatitis C from Australia

VICTORIANS worried about their contact with Dr James Latham Peters over the past four years should contact health authorities - not just patients of the doctor in 2008 and 2009, as first stated last week.

A spokesman for the Department of Health last night confirmed that Dr Peters had worked at Croydon Day Surgery - the clinic where he allegedly infected 12 patients with his own strain of hepatitis C - since 2006.

On Friday, Victoria’s chief health officer, Dr John Carnie, said the infected patients had visited the clinic between June 2008 and December last year, and that patients worried about their contact with him at the Croydon clinic during this period should contact the department.

He said departmental workers were also trying to contact patients they believed to be at risk of contracting the blood-borne virus from him during this 18-month period.

But the department spokesman last night said authorities would also encourage patients who visited Dr Peters at Croydon Day Surgery as far back as 2006 to seek further information from the department if they were worried about the virus.

As of last night, the department had received 830 calls from people with questions about the anaesthetist, who is believed to have been using drugs when he infected patients with his particular strain of the illness.

Last week, Dr Carnie said he referred the matter to police in March because he found it hard to imagine how the transmission of the virus had been accidental.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/officials-welcome-hepatitis-c-feedback-20100412-s4dx.html

Being Warehoused

‘Warehoused : when patients elect to wait for the new drugs’
Warehoused : Thought this was interesting about waiting for new treatments, I think you might have to wait extra long for pharmac to fund a new treatment in New Zealand. So maybe prepare to be in your warehouse with hep c for a long time ?

Hepatitis C Patients May Boost Merck, J&J, Vertex

http://www.businessweek.com

By Michelle Fay Cortez and Naomi Kresge

April 19 (Bloomberg) — At Fred Poordad’s bustling hepatitis C clinic in the heart of Los Angeles, one in every five patients receives no treatment. They are waiting for a wave of new drugs, expected in the next 18 months, that may boost their chance at a cure by as much as 10-fold.

They’re just the first among new therapies anticipated in the next five years as companies seek a single pill to cure the infection. Poordad, chief of hepatology at the Liver Disease and Transplant Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, doesn’t object when his patients elect to wait for the new drugs, a practice known as “warehousing.”

“The warehousing has been going on for the past year or so,” Poordad said. “I think we’ll see a tremendous increase in the volume of patients that are treated. That’s the most exciting thing in the field for a long time.”

The drugs closest to market, Merck’s boceprevir and telaprevir from Vertex and Johnson & Johnson, are protease inhibitors crafted from the technologies that led to discoveries made in the fight against HIV. The new treatments are being tested as additions to current standard treatments. Both drugs work by blocking the action of the protease enzyme the hepatitis virus needs to replicate, directly stopping it from spreading.

Warehoused better than a wallet biopsy………….

Telaprevir, has had a trial here in NZ recently, with another trial coming soon.

Adding the investigational drug telaprevir to standard treatment for hepatitis C infection cures about half the patients willing to give therapy a second try. That compares to a cure rate of just 14 percent among those who were re-treated with the standard regimen, according to researchers at Duke Clinical Research Institute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwKJQgkdJ2s&feature=player_embedded

Happy Hepatitis month

best of Health

www.hcv.org.nz

March 8, 2010

Hepatitis C New Zealand Blog March 2010

Filed under: Hepatitis C New Zealand — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 3:29 pm

Hepatitis C conference  Whakatane 2010

Past Failures and New Solutions in Hepatitis B and C control in New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region
Tariana Turia - NZ Viral Hepatitis Conference 2010

Tuatahi me mihi atu ki te mana whenua. Tena koutou o Mataatua waka. Tena hoki koutou o nga mata waka kua whakarauika nei i raro i te karanga o te ra

Tena koutou i runga i te rangimarie. Tena koutou i runga i nga maharatanga mo ratou kua wheturangitia.

No reira, tena tatou katoa

I want to thank the Hepatitis Foundation of New Zealand for the honour of being invited to open this third New Zealand Viral Hepatitis Conference.

I acknowledge the local people of this rohe, and I thank them for their generosity in hosting us here in Whakatane.

I extend a particular welcome to our international guests:

* Professor Mitchell Shiffman from the United States;
* Professor Andrew Lloyd from Australia;
* Dr Morris Sherman from Canada and
* Dr James Fung from Hong Kong.

While both Hepatitis B and C viruses are notifiable conditions under the Health Act, it is only cases of acute infection which require to be notified to the Medical Officer of Health.

Alongside with the lack of awareness that comes from being asymptomatic; people with hepatitis may experience stigma and discrimination which compounds the problems of living with the virus.

So the call to do better is an important one.

We must continue to raise awareness, leading to increased testing and diagnosis.
Well spoken words from Tariana Turia

Life after liver transplant

Hi, This is my first post of my Video Diary following my Liver Transplant and my continued fight against my Hepatitis C infection/virus. Just a quick one to saay hello - I’ve never done video before and so let’s hope for all our sakes that I get better at it soon!

Please check out my blog: http://www.ianquill.blogspot.com - Thanks for watching…. Ian Quill

Hepatitis C Drug Trails NZ March 2010

Four drug trials for Hepatitis C in New Zealand at the moment (March 2010)
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=hepatitis+c+New+zealand&recr=Open
1, TMC435-TiDP16-C206: A Safety and Efficacy Study in Chronic, Genotype 1, Hepatitis C Patients That Failed Previous Standard Treatment

2,  A Safety and Efficacy Study of the Combination of VX-222 and Telaprevir in Treatment-Naïve Subjects With Genotype 1 Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection

3, Safety and Tolerability Study of Clemizole Hydrochloride to Treat Hepatitis C in Subjects Who Are Treatment-Naive

4, Antiviral Activity of AZD7295 in HCV Carriers

Doctor  Magdalena Harris

thesis is available online now

Negotiating the pull of the normal: embodied narratives of living with hepatitis C in New Zealand and Australia (2010)
Harris, Magdalena , National Centre In HIV Social Research, Faculty Of Arts & Social Sciences, UNSW
My status as a person living with hepatitis C informed all aspects of this research project; I therefore also include my own experiences, foregrounding researcher reflexivity and the co-constructed nature of the interview process.

“ My aims are both practical and theoretical. On a practical level I explore the experiences of people living with hepatitis C in order to inform recommendations for policy, research and practice, while also working to elucidate and employ an approach that allows for an analysis of the ill body as a lived experiencing agent, located in a substantive web of connections whereby discourse, corporeality and sociality, inform and mediate one another. To this end I employ a “political phenomenology” influenced by phenomenological and poststructuralist theoretical approaches. The central, previously under-researched, issues that arose in participants’ narratives structure the chapter outline, with results chapters focusing on participants’ experiences of diagnosis, living with hepatitis C, stigma, support group membership, alcohol use, and hepatitis C treatment.

For many participants, it was found that living with hepatitis C was a liminal experience where distinctions between what it was to be healthy or ill were not clear-cut. Indeed, many of the participants’ narratives exposed the inadequacy of Western binary categorisations to speak to their experiences of living with hepatitis C. Throughout this thesis it can be seen that the meanings that participants ascribed to health, illness, and their hepatitis C were fluid and contextual, informed by the interplay of corporeality and discourse. From this interplay comes the ability to speak into the gaps of dominant discourses, creating the potential for the disruption, or subtle realignment, of normative ways of knowing. “
Download  your copy here
http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/unsworks:7899

Congratulations  Dr Harris from all your peers.

The best of health
www.hcv.org.nz

November 3, 2009

New Zealand Hepatitis C Blog The good news

Filed under: Hepatitis C New Zealand — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 4:18 pm

New Zealand Hepatitis C Blog The good news

The Good News about Coffee

Patients with chronic hepatitis C and advanced liver disease who drink three or more cups of coffee per day have a 53% lower risk of liver disease
progression than non-coffee drinkers according to a new study led by Neal Freedman, Ph.D., MPH, from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
The study found that patients with hepatitis C-related bridging fibrosis or cirrhosis who did not respond to standard disease treatment benefited
from increased coffee intake. An effect on liver disease was not observed in patients who drank black or green tea. Findings of the study appear
in the November issue of Hepatology, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.
Three cups a day and a 53% lower risk of progression that has to make coffee a good option for those with hep c.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122511224/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

The Good news for new treatment options  Telaprevir

Good news for People with Genotype one Hepatitis C is the latest results of the new drug telaprevir
Cork, Ireland (October 31, 2009) –Tibotec announced today results of a new study (VX950-C208), which showed that sustained virologic response (SVR)
was achieved in more than 80 percent of treatment-naïve patients with chronic genotype 1 hepatitis C virus (HCV) who took telaprevir, administered either
every 8 hours or every 12 hours, in combination with standard of care. Telaprevir, an investigational STAT-C (Specifically Targeted Antiviral Therapy for hepatitis C),
is being co-developed by Tibotec in collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The study was presented today at the 60th Annual Meeting of the
American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (The Liver Meeting).

In the phase II study, which enrolled 161 treatment-naïve genotype 1 patients, rates of SVR (defined as undetectable HCV RNA at 24 weeks after completion of treatment)
ranged from 81 to 85 percent in patients treated with the every 8 hour telaprevir-based regimen, and 82 to 83 percent in patients treated with the every twelve hour regimen.
Adverse events (AEs) were similar to those observed in other trials with telaprevir and were mainly haematologic (anaemia) and cutaneous (rash and pruritus) in nature.

For the vast majority of patients, these high SVR rates were obtained with only 24 weeks of total treatment (half the duration of current standard of care).
Total duration of treatment was decided using a criteria based on treatment response. Subjects who achieved undetectable HCV RNA at week 4
(rapid virologic response or RVR) and maintained this through week 20, were allowed to stop all treatment at week 24. Only 18% of subjects were required to continue standard treatment up to week 48.

Source: Johnson & Johnson Services

Good news for me

My post treatment 24 week viral load came back undetectable

testviralload

The Good news from www.womanaloud.co.uk

Had some good feedback from my last Blog post In particular from Tracy  at  http://www.womanaloud.co.uk/index.html A peer among peers.

” I wish you good health and a sharp pen. Raising awareness of hepatitis C is an uphill struggle… but day by day, one step at a time, it is happening. It is interesting to consider that, if we could get over the brain fog ; D, there are enough of us in the world with this condition, to form our own group/religion/club… if 180 million sufferers were all to shout on the same day, at the same time… mmm … I think I’ll put the kettle on. ”

Thanks Tracy great message. Just off to have a cup of tea myself,  maybe  a coffee as it seems that may be better for me.

Best of Health


www.hcv.org.nz

August 23, 2009

Filed under: Hepatitis C New Zealand — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 5:16 pm

Current Clinical Drug Trials for Hepatitis C In New Zealand

New Zealand has up to six different drug trials currently in progress for Hepatitis C.
1    Recruiting     TMC435-TiDP16-C205: A Phase II Study of TMC435 in Combination With Pegylated Interferon Alpha-2a and Ribavirin in Patients Infected With Genotype 1 Hepatitis C Virus Who Never Received Treatment
Condition:     Hepatitis C
Interventions:     Drug: PegIFNalpha-2a;   Drug: PegIFNalpha-2a;   Drug: Ribavirin PegIFNalpha-2a;   Drug: Ribavirin PegIFNalpha-2a;   Drug: TMC435 TMC435 Placebo;   Drug: TMC435 Ribavirin;   Drug: TMC435 TMC435 Placebo;   Drug: TMC435 Ribavirin;   Drug: PegIFNalpha-2a;   Drug: TMC435 Placebo Ribavirin

2    Recruiting     A Study of Combination Treatment With an HCV Polymerase Inhibitor (Polymerase Inhibitor) and an HCV Protease Inhibitor (RO5190591) in Genotype 1 Chronic Hepatitis C Patients
Condition:     Hepatitis C, Chronic
Interventions:     Drug: RO5024048/RO5190591;   Drug: RO5024048/RO5190591;   Drug: RO5024048/RO5190591;   Drug: RO5024048/RO5190591;   Drug: RO5024048/RO5190591;   Drug: RO5024048/RO5190591

3    Recruiting     Safety and Efficacy of MK7009 Administered With Pegylated Interferon (Peg-IFN) and Ribavirin (RBV)
Condition:     Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection
Interventions:     Drug: Comparator: Peg-INF;   Drug: Comparator: RBV;   Drug: Comparator: MK7009;;   Drug: Comparator: Placebo.;   Drug: Comparator: MK7009.;   Drug: Comparator: MK7009;   Drug: Comparator: Placebo;;   Drug: Comparator: Peg-INF.;   Drug: Comparator: RBV.

4    Recruiting   Safety and Tolerability Study of Clemizole Hydrochloride to Treat Hepatitis C in Subjects Who Are Treatment-Naive
Condition:     Hepatitis C
Intervention:     Drug: clemizole hydrochloride

5    Recruiting     Antiviral Activity of AZD7295 in HCV Carriers
Condition:     Hepatitis C
Interventions:     Drug: AZD7295;   Drug: Placebo

6    Recruiting     Drug-Drug Interaction Study of VCH-222 and Telaprevir in Healthy Subjects
Condition:     Hepatitis C
Interventions:     Drug: VCH-222;   Drug: VCH-222;   Drug: VCH-222;   Drug: telaprevir

Interesting to discover so many trials underway in New Zealand and these are just the current ones.  I guess if you want to get on a drug trial you are chosen as opposed to applying in most cases, but its all ways worth asking your medical provider about them.
You can read more detail at this informative site
www.ClinicalTrials.gov

ClinicalTrials.gov United States National Institutes of Health offers up-to-date information for locating federally and privately supported clinical trials for a wide range of diseases and conditions. A clinical trial (also clinical research) is a research study in human volunteers to answer specific health questions. Interventional trials determine whether experimental treatments or new ways of using known therapies are safe and effective under controlled environments. Observational trials address health issues in large groups of people or populations in natural settings.

When drug trials go Bad

Whenever I think of drug trials I think of guinea pigs and the tragic British drug trials of March 2006, A case of guinea pig beware I guess.
“It was the first time the drug TBN1412, designed to treat conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and leukaemia, had been tested on humans.
Within hours of taking it on Monday, the six young volunteers had to be admitted to intensive care.
Ms Marshall, 35, whose boyfriend is critically ill, said the normally healthy 28-year-old’s face was so puffed, he “looks like the Elephant Man”.
She said he was completely lifeless, unable even to move an eyelid.
“They just keep saying he’s very, very sick and we are doing all we can,” she added. “

Such clinical trials were essential for the development of new and better treatments

The Medical Research Council said that while it was “an unfortunate and extremely rare event”, such clinical trials were essential for the development of new and better treatments.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4808836.stm

Best of Heath www.hcv.org.nz

April 30, 2009

How many people in New Zealand have Hepatitis C ?

Filed under: Hepatitis C New Zealand — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 3:55 pm

How many people in New Zealand have Hepatitis C ?

holiday

The often quoted 50,000 New Zealanders’ with HCV figure derives from a study, Hepatitis C infection in New Zealand: Estimating the current and future prevalence and impact July 2000

The objective of this project was to estimate the number of people in New Zealand who are currently infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and how many are likely to become infected up until the year 2010. It also aimed to project how many people are expected to develop HCV-related liver disease.

The study uses a model developed by the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research in Australia. The model was modified to reflect the epidemiology of HCV infection and injecting drug use in New Zealand. It is based on estimating the number of people who have used injecting drugs over time and determining the incidence of HCV as a result of this. These estimates were adjusted for transmission from other routes including the receipt of HCV-infected blood and blood products.

The estimates and projections from the model must be interpreted with caution as there are limited New Zealand data for the input variables of the model.

So lots of assumptions later and with lots of qualifying statements we have the guesstimate of 50,000 Zealanders’ with HCV the truth no one knows ?

Australian study

An Australian led, international clinical trial, being presented at the European Association for the Study of the Liver Congress in Copenhagen this week has highlighted the benefits of treating hepatitis C sooner, rather than later.

The study involved more than 700 Australians with hepatitis C and 33 Australian hospitals. It found people living with the most common strain of hepatitis C who receive treatment when there is minimal, or no liver damage, may double their chance of a cure, compared to those treated in the later stages, where liver damage has become more advanced.

“We found that that up to seven out of ten people, with the most common strain of hepatitis C (called genotype 1), may be cured if treatment starts before liver scarring or damage has occurred.”

Associate Professor Stuart Roberts, Director of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne

More here

Christchurch Hepatitis C Community Clinic

Christchurch Hepatitis C Community Clinic, Information about clinic and interview with nurse Jenny Burke and from Christchurch Hepatitis C resource Centre in their Connexion magazine reproduced here.

http://www.hcv.org.nz/christchurchclinicjbourke.html

The clinic has opened in partnership with the Christchurch needle exchange, The Rodger Wright Centre. Personally I would rather go to a GP / hospital to access health services.

I was at a party recently when a old friend approached me and told me about getting a blood test at one. She was not impressed, She is in recovery (staunch NA person lots’ of regular meetings etc) she described the experience as making her feel like a junky again and that the person couldn’t get a blood sample from her despite numerous tries.

For people who are immersed in the sad reality of drug use Community Clinics may be the only way they can access health care and it is important to cater for these disadvantaged groups if we are to effectively address Hepatitis C epidemic in New Zealand.

The claim it is the first community hepatitis C clinic in NZ is somewhat dubious as it appears to offer no treatment just referrals for treatment.

The European Association of the Study of Liver Disease wrapped up on Sunday in Copenhagen. Some new drugs and studies revealed at EASL in Copenhagen EASL , here are some of the highlights of all things hepatitis C including

Roche, InterMune(ITMN Quote) and Pharmasset(VRUS Quote) provided the most eagerly anticipated clinical data of the conference Saturday with results from a 14-day trial combining two experimental direct antivirals — InterMune’s ITMN-191 with Pharmasset’s R7128 — given to patients with treatment-naïve hepatitis C. Roche is a development partner on both drugs.

telaprevir is capable of significantly improving cure rates in the most difficult-to-treat patients who had failed prior treatment with the current standard drug regimen for hepatitis C — a 48-week course of long-acting interferon plus ribavirin.

This data keeps telaprevir ahead of its hepatitis C rivals because no other drug has yet shown the ability to improve the cure rates for both patients new to therapy as well as those who have failed prior therapy.

Telaprevir was the “butt” of some negative EASL chatter due to an anecdotal report that the drug was causing severe anal itching in patient(s). One EASL attendee described the side effect as “fire in the hole.”

More here

http://www.thestreet.com/story/10492231/1/hepatitis-c-updates-from-easl-liver-confab.html

World Hepatitis Day coming up Tuesday, May 19, 2009

www.hcv.org decided to celebrate World Hepatitis Day by finding out how many people in New Zealand are treated and what level of care and treatment and support is available.

We sent letters to all District health boards and are hoping to get back replies and post them up in next month or so.

It is inspired by a recent study of Asthma care in NZ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10556507

Otago and Canterbury were done earlier and their replies here.

http://www.hcv.org.nz/CHCHOIA08.html

http://www.hcv.org.nz/otagoaudit08.html

Best of Health

www.hcv.org.nz

November 16, 2008

Hepatitis C New Zealand www.hcv.org.nz community HCV blog

Filed under: Hepatitis C New Zealand — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 2:44 pm

Hepatitis C New Zealand Blog Time

 

or as I like to think of it time to not do something else,

cloudy interferon day my brain hasn’t quite engaged Ive gone through the motions but.

What’s been happening, New government in New Zealand, I wonder if they will be better than the last lot at dealing with epidemics, time will tell ?

Ive been taking the Interferon Ribavirin combination for six weeks now fingers crossed it’s draining but hopefully a positive health experience.

The web site re design is in progress, when my brain works and I have free time so may take a while but progressing.

Interesting news

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4 — New treatments for hepatitis C hold promise for adults, For children, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Watch the video

 

 

“I caught hepatitis C at birth - but now I’m cured “ There are many way’s to catch Hepatitis C

 

Louise had contracted the virus - which can survive in blood outside the human body for up to three months - from her mother who had herself been infected by a blood transfusion while giving birth.

‘Mum was diagnosed in 2000 after reading a magazine article that advised those who’d had a blood transfusion before routine screening began in 1991 to get tested,’ says Louise.

‘We were all tested but while my brother and sister got the all-clear, I was positive. It was a terrible shock.’

read more

 

Is it cost effective to treat people in Prison ? Yes according to a recent study

 

Hepatitis C Treatment Is Cost-effective For The US Prison Population (Los Angeles, United States)

Treating all U.S. prisoners who have hepatitis C with the standard therapy of pegylated-interferon and ribavirin would be cost-effective, according to a new study. U.S. prisons incarcerate more than 2 million inmates each year, and between 12 and 31 percent of them are infected with chronic hepatitis C (HCV), mostly related to high rates of intravenous drug use. The current standard treatment for HCV has been shown to be cost-effective in the general population and the Federal Bureau of Prisons recommends HCV treatment for those who meet the AASLD’s criteria for treatment, as long as therapy is likely to be completed.

For full story: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081020150617.htm

 

 

New Hepatitis C drug report from American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) conference Drug Pipeline Updates from AASLD
by Alan Franciscus,  hcvadvocate

At the recent American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) conference there were many posters and presentations on new drugs that are in development to treat hepatitis C. This overview will present top line results on many new drugs. Telaprevir , Boceprevir ,Nitazoxanide , and more

 

 I’m still watching a you tube video blog / treatment diary of a DJ musickey who is undergoing treatment for hepatitis C , Hes’ had a few ups and downs as we all do going through treatment so it’s good to see he has reached his 74 th video blog the electronic narrative of the disease, challenging, inspiring stuff thanks for sharing his Hepatitis C  journey here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for this blog

 

Best of health

 

www.hcv.org.nz

 

 

 

 

 

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