Hepatitis Forums
Hepatitis C Main Forums => Hepatitis C Awareness and Activism => Topic started by: Cali84777 on November 24, 2018, 01:36:15 pm
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Does anyone know if it’s illegal to give away the cure? I have 28 epclusa pills. I took 28 of them and was cured. And I gave 28 to a friend and he is cured . I have 28 more . But don’t want to get in trouble if it’s illegal.. just want to help people that can’t afford the cure
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Why did you stop treatment? A four week treatment is not a recommended treatment regimen for anyone and could risk becoming resistant to any future treatment. Did you have a 12 week post treatment HCV RNA test? Unless you have been tested 12 weeks it is entirely possible you could relapse. I treated for 12 weeks with Sovaldi and Olysio. I was not detected on treatment and at EOT but was found to have relapsed 12 weeks post treatment.
You are not considered cured at four weeks in treatment only that the virus is below the tests ability to detect. It is entirely possible there can be residual virus still in your body just below the tests LLOQ (lower limit of quantification)
You are only considered cured when tested at 12 weeks after you have taken your last pill.
If it hasn’t been too long like a couple of days or less I urge you to conplete your full treatment to avoid the risk of relapse and future treatment resistance.
Unless you are a pharmacist it is illegal to sell or even give away any prescription medication to anyone, at any time, for any reason.
Sorry to say but this is an all around bad idea for many reasons.
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Well I didn’t know all that . Thanks for the information. I only took 28 of them about 4 months ago and there is still no sign of the virus. But now I’m a little worried.
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Did you ask your doctor about stopping treatment early because you were not detected at four weeks in treatment? They would have told you that only means the virus is below the tests ability to find the virus not cured that is why the treatment is 8 weeks not 4 to make sure all the virus is gone.
Have you been tested post treatment? It is standard to have a test at 12 weeks post to know if your treatment worked.
I hope you were lucky and even though you stopped your treatment at half way done it still worked. There was one other person here who had to stop treatment early due to other health problems and they were still hep c free at 12 weeks post. Fortunately, these meds are very effective and you still have a chance but basically you made yourself a science experiment by stopping treatment early.
Ask your doctor about having a post treatment viral load test. The HCV RNA by PCR test to find out if you were lucky enough to still be cured. Don’t have a hepatitis C antibody test as we who were previously infected will forever test positive for hep c antibodies. Only the test for the virus will let you know if you are in the clear.
Dispose of your meds properly. It is a violation of Federal law to sell or give away your remaining meds. I had extra Ribavirin because of the way my pharmacy dispensed the meds and the end dates didn’t correspond to the date I ran out of Harvoni. I gave my remaining Ribavirin to my doctors office.
Good luck
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Here is a link with information about different states drug recycling programs
You state may have a way to donate unused meds
http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-prescription-drug-return-reuse-and-recycling.aspx
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Thanks for the help. I’m gonna throw them away. I didn’t know they were illegal to have . Thanks
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When you say there is no sign of the virus what do you mean? Were you tested? The majority of people with hep c have few symptoms just being tired is the most common. For that reason hep c is called a silent illness.
The only way to know if treatment worked is to have the HCV RNA by PCR test to see if the hep c virus is in your blood stream.
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Thanks for the help. I’m gonna throw them away. I didn’t know they were illegal to have . Thanks
You can have them you just can’t sell them or give them away. Your state may have a recycling program.
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Have you had a viral load test more than 12 weeks after you stopped?