Hepatitis C Musings

Being a novice in the world of liver scanning I am a bit confused about the Fibroscan verses the other scans.

I went and had my liver scanned by ultra sound this morning. I have yet to read the doctor’s report by the actual operator of the scan said that apart from some minor calcification nodules there was no sign of any problems with my liver, no lesions or tumors. Yet my fibrosan said I was borderline F4, meaning very close to cirrhosis. The CT scan agreed with the ultrasound, not the Fibroscan.

Yet there seems to be a lot of reliance on the Fibroscan as an accurate diagnostic device. I don’t know!

I have been getting a lot of feedback from folk who have either started their treatment with Indian generic sofosbuvir or are planning to. What is interesting is the amount of negative feedback some are getting from some health care professionals, which contrasts with the very strong support others are getting from other health care professionals. The reoccurring theme is the concern that the medications are fake or flawed. Some people in the medical fraternity do not seem to realise that about 40% of the meds that they prescribe every day are made in India and the rest are probably made in either China or Brazil.

Tomorrow I should get my viral load results back. Of course I am hoping for a great result, even though I am not certain what a great result would be. As I wait I am kind of reflective. The newspaper article got a little national news attention but not much. The papers and the politician both are more interested in suspected terrorists lurking in dark shadows than a disease that will kill about 1,000 Australians every year and cost the Australian government more than $500,000,000 every year. And all that without even considering the personal cost to 250,000 Australians who have Hep C, the debilitating suffering that chronic Hep C brings. Loss of employment, loss of health, loss of energy. And yet today the disease could be utterly wiped out within a year or two, faster and cheaper than the removal of TB or Polio. The medications are  available and accessible. The only thing preventing the eradication of Hep C in Australia is the will to do so by our government.

For some reason the media is just not interested in Hepatitis C.