If I'm Cured of Hepatitis C, When Is It Safe to Drink Again?

Doctors say the answer lies in whether a patient is honest about their alcohol use and how much damage the liver sustained before treatment.

 For some people, a glass of wine with dinner is one of life’s simple pleasures.

For others, however, it’s more of a problem.

Some of them are in denial about their alcohol use. Or maybe they are ashamed of their drinking.
Those types of people often are not honest with a doctor, or themselves, when asked, “How much alcohol do you actually drink?”

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Variations in Liver Cancer Attributable to Hepatitis Virus Variations

Discovery that hepatitis B and C viruses generate markedly different clinical pathologies highlights potential change in treatment plans for newly diagnosed patients

Newswise — CHICAGO —Significant clinical variations exist among patients with the most common type of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), depending on the viral cause of the disease –hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV). These differences suggest that hepatitis status should be considered when developing treatment plans for newly diagnosed patients, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

These findings, from the largest single-center studies of its kind will be presented on Sunday, May 31 in an oral presentation at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The research builds on previous studies of differential effects of demographics, geographical distribution and risk factors, including hepatitis status, on treatment outcomes among patients with inoperable HCC. In these earlier studies, researchers observed different outcomes based on demographics and geographic patients distribution (Asia versus Europe and USA) among patients receiving the same local or systemic therapy approaches. They hypothesized that these differences might be attributed to variations with regard to hepatitis type, among other factors.

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Indiana drafting county profiles of HIV, hepatitis C rates

Effort aims to help officials detect outbreaks, determine eligibility for needle exchange programs.

State health officials are creating profiles of HIV and hepatitis C rates for all 92 Indiana counties to help local officials detect outbreaks of either disease and determine whether they can seek help under a new needle-exchange law, a top state disease expert said Wednesday.

State epidemiologist Pam Pontones told members of the Indiana State Department of Health's executive board that the agency hopes to quickly complete work on those profiles, which also will include intravenous drug use rates for each county.

Having that data will help county health officials determine whether they're facing an outbreak of either virus and — if it's tied to IV drug use — whether they can request state approval for a needle-exchange program to try to contain that outbreak, she said.

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Hepatitis C -- The Long Goodbye

The long goodbye is often used to describe the drawn out fading of a person's mind, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

But for my mom, it was because of Hepatitis C.

My mom worked as a hospital lab technician for most of her career. She remembered accidentally sticking her hand, with the contaminated needle of a sick patient.

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HCV increases mortality among patients with CKD

Veterans with chronic kidney disease and hepatitis C virus infection were found to have an increased rate of mortality, risk of lower kidney function and incidence of loss of kidney function vs. veterans without the infection, according to new study data.

“Hepatitis C affects 4 million Americans [and] previous studies have not established unanimously whether hepatitis C is associated with the development and progression of chronic kidney disease,” Csaba P. Kovesdy, MD, director of the Clinical Outcomes and Clinical Trials Program at Memphis VA Medical Center in Tenn., told Healio.com/Hepatology. “[The study] examined the association of hepatitis C infection with mortality, with the development of new onset chronic kidney disease, with end stage renal disease and with the speed of loss of kidney function in over 1 million U.S. veterans. We found that hepatitis C infection was associated with a significantly increased risk of all these end points.”

Molnar MZ, et al. Hepatology. 2015;doi:10.1002/hep.27664.

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Sanders Asks VA to Break Patents on Gilead and AbbVie Hep C Drugs

The ongoing debate over the cost of prescription drugs took another twist as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) has asked the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to use emergency powers to break – or override – the patents on high-priced hepatitis C medicines sold by several drug makers, including Gilead Sciences.


The prices have caused a firestorm as both public and private payers complain the treatments are straining their budgets. Sanders notes the VA stopped enrolling veterans who need treatment for hepatitis C due to budget constraints. The agency has already reallocated $400 million on hepatitis C drugs, but needs additional funding.

“I cannot think of another situation where the government-use provision [of the law that allows the VA to break the patents] should be applied,” Sanders wrote in a letter to Robert McDonald, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary. “Our nation’s veterans cannot, and should not, be denied treatment while drug companies rake in billions of dollars in profits.”

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Lake County Health Department Holds Free Hepatitis Health Fair on May 19

In observance of National Hepatitis Testing Day, the Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center (LCHD/CHC) will host a free hepatitis health fair in conjunction with Abbvie, Orasure Technologies, Walgreens, Salix Pharmaceuticals, American Liver Foundation Great Lakes Division, the YWCA Lake County, GlenLake Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and the Lake County Stands Against Stigma Coalition. The event will take place on Tuesday, May 19, in the lobby of the County Building, 18 N. County Street in Waukegan, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that everyone born between 1945 and 1965, in the Baby Boomers generation, get a blood test for hepatitis C. This recommendation calls for one-time testing of Baby Boomers.

Program staff will provide information and education about hepatitis B and C prevention, care and treatment. Free blood pressure screenings will be offered. Participants can also receive general information related to overall health and wellbeing. Free hepatitis C and HIV tests will also be offered at the LCHD/CHC Sexually Transmitted Infections program's (STI) office the day of the event at 2400 Belvidere Road in Waukegan. Please call 847-377-8450 for more information.

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