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Hep C Discussion Forum -> General Discussion -> HepC in Australia
Post Info TOPIC: HepC in Australia
Pablito


Senior Member

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Posts: 363
Date:
RE: HepC in Australia
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Go Australia.  Is it the only country in the world to adopt a treat-all approach?

If the majority of cases get treated then the heard effect goes and HCV is a thing of the past in Oz....another reason to keep its notoriously stringent immigration rules in place!



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44 y.o. male, HCV G4 since 1996, F-scan score 9, F2, Failed prior I/R, finished sof/vel/vox 8 weeks 5/16, pre-treatment VL 2 million, EOT UND, EOT+4 UND, EOT+12 UND.
Shadowfax


Guru

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Posts: 681
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Thank you for posting this! This just all good news from this side of the pond as well.

SF



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65 yo, GT1A, , Cirrhosis, F-Scan F4 33.5, TX Naive Harvoni 12 wks

SOT 2/9/16 / ALT 187 AST 114 VL 2.3M.    POSTS

EOT 5/2/16  ALT 35/ AST/25  platlets 126 C/B VL UND

EOT +12 7/26/16  ALT 25 /AST 22/ ALP 83  platlets 129 C/B VL UND

EOT + 24 10/18/16 ALT 27/ AST 20/ ALP 71 platlets 153 C UND

 * SVR *
mallani


Guru

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Posts: 3398
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Hi all,

When the Molecular Pathologist rang me with my VL results last week, we had a chat about the VL testing.

In March 2016, Australia gave access to Sovaldi, Harvoni and Daclatasvir to all HepC patients for a few dollars a course. My Lab is a private one, but does half of the VL testing for Queensland. She said the requests for HCV VL had increased by a factor of hundreds since March. VL's are now done before treatment, at 4 weeks after SOT, at 12 weeks (EOT for almost all) and at 12 weeks post EOT. She has not seen a positive result since March! All patients treated in Queensland have gone on to SVR, and this includes many Geno 3 cirrhotics. I find that immensely gratifying.

My Lab uses the Roche COBAS Ampliprep/COBAS TaqMan HCV Quantitative test, with a LLOQ of 15 IU/ml. She said all but two of the Labs in Australia now use this test, with two using the Abbott test. The Labcorp test had been used by some Labs but has been discarded.

My Hepatologist had done the recent VL test just to reassure me. He is working his way through his old patients, most of whom had previously relapsed. Many are Geno 3's. He now has over a thousand SVR's and none have relapsed. Four have been reinfected (IV drug-users). He does a new liver fibrosis assessment, even for his old patients, using FibroScan or biopsy. He has firm views that the blood tests (e.g.FibroTest) are not good enough. For his Geno 1's, he prescribes 12 weeks of Harvoni, even for cirrhotics. His Geno 3's get 12 weeks of Sovaldi/ Daclatasvir, again even for cirrhotics. I was surprised he no longer uses Ribavirin. He loved the stuff and kept me on 1.200mg /day for 48 weeks, even though my Hb dropped to 6-7 (60-70 over here). He claims it does not help. RAV testing is a waste of time, IHHO.

So it's all good news from across the pond. Cheers.



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Geno 1b, IL28B CT,  x3 prior relapser,  ex-cirrhotic, 75 yo, did 48 weeks with Victrelis/Peg./Riba.  VL 1.28m at start, UNDET. at 8 ,12 ,16 ,24 ,30  and 48 weeks.  EOT 15 Feb 2013 , UNDET. at EOT + 28 weeks. SVR!  Still Undet. at EOT +5 years

Malcolm
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