AEROSMITH - STEVEN TYLER'S SECRET HEPATITIS BATTLE

mimijill, It is sad that you are so uninformed. Of course, Steven Tyler had hepatitis c, genotype 1a and is now undetectable (no virus in his veins; i.e. cured). I, personally, know many that have had genotype 1 (a or b) and are now virus free. Many more will take interferon and ribavirin be cured. I am sorry this is not the case for you thus far, but misinforming others will not help your case or karma. I am on interferon currently, and share a common and daily dialogue with many current, previous and future users of interferon. We do win this battle, regularly. Many I speak with have. Even with its many side effects and contraindications, interferon (pegintron or pegasys) is the standard of current medical care. Yes, it is a difficult and, often, harrowing course of treatment. But, to devalue the worth of this treatment is to devalue the sacrifice of the many that fight this affliction daily. Perhaps, as a community, we might focus on encouraging people to get tested, inform our world of this disease and make some headway against a new treatment regime, rather than promoting discouragement. The person you discourage may die, when, in fact, they could have been cured were it not for the untimely reading or your words. There are fathers and sons, wives and daughters and young children dying everyday from Hep C and subsequent liver complications (cirrhosis and/or cancer). And while a significant number of these people may have contracted Hep C from at risk behaviors, at least 40% of us have no idea where we caught this disease—clearly from poor sterilization techniques and a doctor or dentist, the tattoo parlor on the corner, air vaccination guns, or blood transfusions from 1992 or earlier. To win this battle is our only hope; we fight for our families, or children, ourselves and our lives. Besides being clinically false; to say the treatment does not work, is to steal hope from those that suffer from, and fight daily, this disease. I am disheartened that someone with hepatitis C would chose to be part of the problem rather than focusing on being part of the cure. May your liver treat you well… Peace,

Great to hear more & more celebritues coming out with their own 'horror' stories of living with HepC! I too was on the interferon therapy, twice. I am a non-responder. One of the most powerful things I learned along my journey is that IF you get diagnosed, through blood tests that you have Hepatitis C, the very next test you should get is your 'geno-type' test. IF you find out out you have type 1, DO NOT waste your time on Interferon treatment. It is a medical fact that Hepatitis C, geon-type 1, does not respond to interferon or rebetron. Rebetron is a combination of interferon and ribavirin, which is the current and has been the common treatment for Hep C for years. I did the standard 3 million units 3 times a week, but after 8 months, no response, so my doctor stopped the treatment. I saw a doctor on an affiliate NBC channel out of Providence, RI and decided to go see him after thinking about it for almost a year. I then went on a c**ktail on interferon, ribavirin, amantadine and feloxin (not sure of that one's spelling, at the moment), anyway the interferon I was taking, was now up to 18 million units a week. Yes, it almost killed me too..One of the best $6.95 you could ever spend, should be on a book called "Hepatitis A to G" The facts you need to know about all the forms of this dangerous disease. Written by Alan Berkman, M.D., Medical Director, HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Research, Columbia University and Nicholas Bakalar. (Warner Books)