Hello, I’m from Alabama USA, I recently found out that I have HBV-HCV coinfection, On the 10 log my number for hbv is 8.500, and 316,000,000 on PCR, Quant. My hcv log10 is 7.176 iu/ml, and 15,000,000 rna. My doctor has started me on Entecavir .5 mg once a day. I used drugs for a very long time, I got clean over a year ago. I haven’t seen anything on here about being pos. for both viruses. I sure would like to meet others that’s went through this, or is going through this, but it’s been hard to find support for confections. If anyone could help, I’d sure be grateful. Thanks
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Welcome to the community, and congratulations for being 1 year sober! I think I met one person on this forum who is HBV/HDV coinfected, but I haven’t met anyone else who is HBV/HCV coinfected yet. The good news is that HCV is curable in 95% of cases, by taking a daily pill, usually for 8 weeks, but sometimes for 12.
It’s good that you’re getting on treatment for hepatitis B. Many doctors who treat hepatitis B also have experience treating hepatitis C, so I would ask your doctor who prescribed you entecavir if you are also a candidate for the HCV antivirals.
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Dear @Bodiddya,
Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing your story. Yes, completely agree with @et5656 - Hep C is curable, which is why we don’t see many users talking about coinfection - they get treatment and then are only mono-infected. Hope you can get access to this medication to lower your risk of liver disease progression.
Thomas
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Hi @ Bodiddya
Welcome to hepbcommunity forum
Currently treatments for HCV patients with direct acting antiviral drugs (DAA) are highly effective and cheaper than in the past, so they are used to treat acute HCV infections without waiting for HCV spontaneously clearance and chronic HCV infections.
Before starting treatment, doctors must assess the severity of liver fibrosis and your current medication for drug-drug interaction precautions. If cirrhosis is present, treatment duration may take longer about 24 weeks and even after achieving complete cure (SVR) , the patients must be followed up and surveillance for early detection of liver cancer.
At present time, there is no vaccine to prevent HCV infection due to many different viral genotypes and the patients can be reinfected after HCV cure because the immunity that occurred after first HCV infection is not long term and cannot protect reinfection. It is very important for HCV patients to prevent reinfection after cure with harm reduction measures especially in high risk patient groups. I hope this may help you.
chul_chan
Chulapong Chanta. MD. Pediatrics.
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Dear @Bodiddya don’t worry, there are already drugs that can cure HCV. Researchers involved in this work were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine. While HBV cannot be cured, there are effective drugs to inhibit the HBV virus. You can consult your doctor to see if TAF is suitable for you, wishing you good health.
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