For Linda Cornwall gardening is a creative release, but Linda never would have imagined the viral seed that had taken root inside of her. Despite having no risk factors, she was diagnosed with Hepatitis C.
"I was shocked to say the least," Linda Cornwall told Ivanhoe.
The standard treatment, injections of interferon, it's an immune stimulant that can lead to severe anemia and rash.
"The risk was worse than the disease," Linda Cornwall said.
Now a new class of interferon-free drugs, known as Direct Acting Anti-Virals could treat Hepatitis C without the side effects. Doctor Paul Thuluvath says the different D.A.A combinations are in phase 2 and phase 3 trials.
"Most likely it will end up with two drugs combined into one pill. So they'll take one pill a day for three months, we will cure 95 percent of hepatitis C," Doctor Paul J. Thuluvath, M.D., at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, MD, told Ivanhoe.
After taking part in one of the trials, Linda has good news.
"I just found out today I'm still undetectable. After three months off the medication. And I had no side effects; absolutely none.
The new drugs could be on the market by 2015. People with Hepatitis C can sometimes take decades to show symptoms, about 75 percent of those with the disease don't know they have it and most of them are baby boomers. New CDC guidelines recommended anyone born between 1945 and 1965 to get tested, even if you have no known risk factors.
