Just found out I have HCV

[Rene Martin]

Good evening,

My name is Rene Martin, 58 y/o European male, non smoker, non drinker.

Some 3 weeks ago I had an acute pancreatitis caused by gallstones which were formed by too much bilirubin.  Last week my gallbladder was removed.

Analysis of my blood showed I have HCV Genotype 1A, which I most likely have had for around 4 decades.

I live in Thailand and have no health insurance.

My main question at this point in time is:

How urgent is it to start treatment, considering that I have no symptoms and as far as I know no cirrhosis either.

[gnatcatcher]

Rene, welcome to the Hep forums. We have similarities: non smoker, non drinker, HCV for ~4 decades, genotype 1a. I, too, did not feel any symptoms, and my ultrasounds have been normal, but when a FibroScan was performed, it showed cirrhosis. (However, a different fibrosis test, the FibroSure, came up with a milder result.) The other clue that my liver was indeed suffering due to the HCV was that my ALT (SGPT) and AST (SGOT) had been rising in recent years and were way above the normal range. Have you had any of those tests? They will give you a better idea as to whether treatment can be postponed.

The good news for our genotype is that Harvoni has an extremely high cure rate and is, for most people (myself included), very easy to tolerate. The even better news for you is that inexpensive versions are available in several Asian countries. (There is more information elsewhere on these forums.) If you can possibly afford treatment, that is certainly better than making your liver work harder than it should have to.

Best of luck to you.

Gnatty

[jakas]

You can get generic medicine in Thailand for geno 1a which is imported from India or Bangladesh very easily.