Revolution in the healing of devastating hepatitis C
28 July is World Hepatitis Day, and Ludmila Vīksna, Professor of the Department of Infectology and Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine, Rīga Stradiņš University, reminds us about the dangerous hepatitis C virus that is often called the "silent killer", capable of causing liver cirrhosis and cancer. The professor praises modern diagnostics of this disease and explains the advantages of new medicaments.
"Hepatitis C belongs to diseases that occur when infected blood gets into the body of a healthy person," the professor says.
Most frequently, an infection occurs during sexual contact, rarely – using medical and non-medical services, for instance, as a result of an injection or tattoos. Professor Vīksna also points out that a person sharing syringes for intravenous drug injections with other persons can get infected not only with hepatitis B and C, but also HIV.
Professor Vīksna emphasises that hepatitis C must be cured, as it "damages not only liver cells; the pathogen may be found in other organs and tissue”.
Moreover, hepatitis has no specific symptoms, it gradually damages organs, thus it is diagnosed most frequently when the disease has developed into its chronic form. Currently, general practitioners are very attentive, and if a patient complains of feeling ill and a lack of energy, feels weakness, they advise blood tests to test for hepatitis C.
The professor also emphasises that "diagnostics enabling the establishing of the presence of hepatitis C in a patient is of a high standard in Latvia. We can establishthe presence of the virus, its type, amount so that we can later assess whether the therapy for the patient is effective”.
With regard to the treatment possibilities for this disease, the professor informs that 2014 has seen a revolutionary change in the healing of hepatitis C. "Currently, there is a whole group of new medicine for the treatment of hepatitis C. Until now, medicine removed the virus from the human body in 50% of cases within a year, now there is medicine that does it in 90% of cases during three months.”
Treatment of hepatitis C is expensive, but the professor encourages investing money and using all other options for therapy, as "a healthy person has a better quality of life".
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