Hepatitis C is a very common virus with which dialysis patients are infected. It gets transmitted via blood transfusions (when the blood transfused has not been tested properly), through mistakes in dialysis centres by the staff, especially while reprocessing dialysers and other means such as sexual transmission, sharing needles and so on.
Until a few years back, there was no reliable treatment for Hepatitis C. But the arrival of Direct Acting Agents like Sofosbuvir has changed all that. Today, Hepatitis C can be treated with astonishingly high success rates. The price is also within reach for most people. And yet due to a lack of awareness about the disease and the havoc it can cause in the long term and not knowing that there is a very reliable drug for it causes many infected patients to remain untreated.
The trouble, if I can really call it that, with Hepatitis C is that it is an indolent virus that does not cause any acute symptoms. If left untreated, it can silently damage the liver without the carrier having any symptoms whatsoever. So an individual could be carrying the virus for years if not tested before they get to know that they are carriers of the virus.
Dialysis patients are more susceptible to be infected with the virus as their blood is exposed to the outside several times a week for several hours a day. The rate of damage to our livers is also higher than the population with healthy kidneys.
I write this as I am facing the brunt of the damage this virus has caused to my liver. It is messing up my treatment plans at every stage. Even though I got successfully treated about a decade ago when Sofosbuvir had just become available, for a decade before that I lived with the virus in my body. There was no proper treatment at that time and I was helpless. And I am now suffering the consequences.
Those of you who have unfortunately contracted this disease, please do not take it lightly just because you do not have any symptoms of the disease. The virus is working silently without making it obvious that it is doing substantial damage to your liver. Please speak to your doctor right away about treatment options. Many countries in the world (including some states in India) have an active Hepatitis C treatment program. Please find out about these programs and speak to your doctor. Spare yourselves the agony of what I am going through right now. You have the option now thankfully. Make full use of it.
Comments