Hi Ed,

I did 48 weeks of triple ( Victrelis) and found I could not go out in the sun at all. At about 6 weeks, I was in the sun for 10 minutes and within half an hour, my skin was hot, itchy and fiery red. I used some 0.05% steroid cream and by the next day it had gone. I live in a hot climate ( Brisbane, Australia) and spent the rest of my 48 weeks indoors. I don't quite understand, because I have had 2 previous courses of Interferon and Ribavirin. During these previous courses I was able to play golf etc. and had no trouble with sun exposure. That makes me think it's the antiprotease, perhaps in combination with the Riba. Cheers.

I started treatment last June and had a lot of problems with rash. I couldn't go into the sun for much over 10 minutes unprotected without getting a rash and water blisters on the uncovered areas. So I learned to avoid the sun, and heat, as much as possible. Not an easy task during a long Texas summer. If I had to go in the sun, I covered up from head to toe. When people would say something about the long sleeves, gloves and hat in summer, I would tell them that it kept me cooler because I was always in the shade. I know people thought I was crazy, mowing my lawn by flashlight, but we do what we have to to get thru this. You might experiment with some short trips into the sun, just to see what happens But really it's not that big a sacrifice to make considering what the alternitive could mean. Best of luck to you!

Hi all, this is the third time around on treatment [tx]. In 04 I was in riba & peg while on my second week of tx one day i went fishing wihtout skin protection and a rash started. the rash got so bad my doctor took me off the med while the dermotolist treated the severe rash with steriod and tubs of triamcinolone. Two weeks later I resume my therapy for hep c.  After being tx of riba & peg for 12 wks the doctor took off because i didn't responed to treatment Here i am in just started week #8 and Im afraid to go fishing or any sun related activity because of fear of my rash getting out of control!! . Since starting triple therapy I've keeped the rash under some control with triamcinolone and benadril coupled w/advil as needed.
should I continue staying away from the sun and fun or just go for it and injoy life small pleasures of one jerk[go fishing] waiting for another jerk [fish hard].

51 yr old hep c  geno type1a, started tx 3/1/13 vl7.9 mil, 4 week at vl3.3mil.