How long does treatment take?

[fullof?]

I've ben reading up on Hep C treatment and now all the new treatment stuff. I'm so confused. How long does treatment take? Is it 24 weeks? A year? help!

[natalie23]

It used to take 6 months to a year but I think the new drugs just approved shorten the time considerably. They also raised the amount of people the process actually cures too. Not sure specifics hopefully the editors here will weigh in.

[dot3434]

Definitely the chance for it to be much shorter now but i'll lv details to the experts 

[Tim Horn]

The length of treatment for hepatitis C depends on a number of factors, including the genotype of the virus and the early signs of treatment effectiveness.

For people living with HCV genotypes 2 or 3 -- generally considered the easiest-to-treat forms of the virus -- treatment generally lasts 24 weeks (six months).

HCV genotypes 1 or 4 -- the most common forms of the virus in the U.S. and the most difficult to treat -- generally require nearly a year of treatment (48 weeks). However, the length of treatment for these forms of HCV will depend on your viral load (the amount of HCV detectable in a blood sample) after the first 12 weeks of treatment. If the your HCV viral load is "undetectable" after 12 weeks, you will continue treatment for the full 48 weeks, given that you stand a good chance of being cured of the virus once therapy is discontinued. If, however, your HCV is still detectable after 12 weeks, your treatment will likely be discontinued early, given that you're unlikely to be cured of the virus using your selected regimen and might want to try again -- perhaps using newer drugs, once they become available -- down the road.

Tim Horn 

[fullof?]

Thanks Tim and everyone else who replied!