any idea how long it takes for the harvoni to leave the body?

[hkillinger99]

Just wondering how long harvoni may stay in my system? I am in my 3rd week post treatment, gratefully the vivid, sometimes bad dreams are gone. But I am still so exhausted with terrible sleep patterns and maybe this is typical, I have no idea.  From the time I found out I had hep c to this very day has been less that 1 year.  I was one of the lucky ones to get treatment relatively easy.  But like so many others have mentioned, I'm not sure how long I've had it (18 years at least) and I am not sure what normal feels like and what physical issues I've had over the years were related to the hep c.  Thanks for all of your voices and any ideas or thoughts are always appreciated

[atomic dog]

There seems to be disagreement among caregivers as reported on this forum, anywhere between a week and 12 weeks. My own sense is that things cleared for me after about a month.

[GLCII]

I read on here somewhere, where someone said a persons body loses about 50% of the meds about every 3 days. That seemed about right to me.

[Phil]

Here is my previous reply:

As a general rule the majority of any medication will clear the system in 5 to 6 half-lives. For Harvoni, with a half-life of approximately 48 hours, that means 10-14 days or so. At 14 days < 1% of a medication with a half-life of 48 hours will remain. Understand this is not an exact science.

At 48 hours/2 days after stopping Harvoni, 50% remains, at 4 days, the second half-life, half of 50% or 25% remains, 6 days 12.5%, 8 days 6.25%, 10 days half of 6.25% and so on. Every 48 hours half of the remaining medication is cleared/eliminated.

Phil

[Phil]

My previous post on thoughts of recovery:

Many of us have lived with hepatitis C for so long we have forgotten what normal was like. I haven't noticed many folks who have described suddenly feeling great post treatment. More seem to experience a slow and protracted recovery. Probably as it should be, although we have little in the way of evidence to understand the process. Wholesale cure from chronic viral infections is a new phenomenon in human experience.

For many of us, the hepatitis C virus no doubt caused damage to multiple organ systems for many years. Even if that damage was in part subtle. Just adjusting to the absence of that chronic, generalized inflammatory state which is hepatitis C infection, would seem a slow process. An equilibration involving many of the body's organ systems, particularly the immunologic system. In general the immunologic system is slow to recover from chronic stressors. For example the prolonged recovery time of the adrenal glands after chronic steroid use.

What I'm saying is a protracted recovery is likely to be expected. I'm also saying we are the first group of any reasonable size to experience this process of cure and recovery from chronic viral infections. This is essentially unchartered territory, medically speaking. For that reason, and because we have the technology to easily share experiences, doing so is of value. Trying as best we can to account for factors of other medical conditions and age.

As background I have had hepatitis C, genotype 1a, since 1988. I completed 12 weeks of treatment with Harvoni, 9 weeks ago. I had no prior history of treatment for hep c. Viral load has been "undetected" since early in treatment. In 3 weeks I will undergo my 12 week EOT testing. In 2008 my liver was stage 2 by biopsy. Just before treatment, 6 months ago, my liver was stage 4/cirrhosis by Fibrosure testing. Fibrosure is a questionable test at best. In my opinion.

Phil

[Mr. Bob]

That is  assuming the 10 to15 % approx of the medicine they did not recover from the body and did not know how it was metabolized  in the trials  comes outof the body............ lol....... 

[Phil]

Actually the half-life is the half-life. It is not dependent on knowing entirely the process of metabolism or elimination. Just a measurement of the concentration of a drug in the blood as a function of time. It does assume you can accurately determine the amount of a drug in the human body by following its concentration in the blood. Not always a valid assumption.

Phil

[hkillinger99]

Thanks everyone for the input, also thanks to Phil for your insight regarding the recovery process.  I'm utilizing the "wait and see" approach, along with some other lifestyle changes that certainly can't hurt.  My husband has it as well and I'm pushing like crazy for him to begin treatment so that we don't keep re-infecting each other, even if the chances are slim.  Blessings and good thoughts to us all and praying there is no crazy recall of this drug later on down the road

[Phil]

Please keep posting and let us know how you feel with time. Sharing notes is important. I understand your concerns about your husband being untreated. However my wife has remained hepatitis C negative after more than 20 years exposure to whatever risk I have presented. The first 14 years without us knowing I had the disease. We took no special precautions other than not sharing tooth brushes and razors after diagnosis. I did have to get her to stop using my razor on her legs, which she had done for years, before we knew. We also never worried about sexual transmission of hepatitis C or took specific related precautions. What I'm saying is that although hepatitis C seems to be rather easily transmitted via blood exposure, probably easier than HIV, it is not overly easy to transmit by casual exposure, to family members for example. Still a risk of course so please be careful.

Phil

[hkillinger99]

Thanks again Phil for your insight.  Neither one of us is 100% sure how we got infected (both of us previously led high-risk lifestyles) and it is good to know that regular contact (including intimate) is a very low risk for infection.  I still worry though, and will be much more vigilant about everything.  Will update regularly and so far, things seem to be improving little by little. Best wishes

[frank]

hey guys need some help i am ud after 8 weeks of harvoni everything looked good ,then i got into a serious bout of diahrea and have battling this for a week now ,i have been taking vikiden for the last month due to back pain would that be a trigger for a relapse  get my week 12 results friday and am very nerveous man i am nerveous please respond

[Phil]

I assume you mean Vicodin, hydrocodone with acetaminophen. Many people with hepatitis C are on hydrocodone or oxycodone, so you are not even close to alone. Neither of these medications is known to cause problems during treatment with Harvoni, based on the listed known medication interactions. In addition folks on those medications are not being asked to stop during Harvoni treatment.  That said we likely do not have research looking at that question specifically. Unlikely to be a problem but not enough information to know for sure. You could call Gilead and ask if they have any specific insight. They will probably just read the insert.

Phil

[frank]

thank you phil

[Phil]

You are very welcome Sir......

Phil