Check out what we have in store for you in the February Newsletter

Greetings Advocaters,

February is upon us and it is a sweetheart of a month.  The HCV Advocate newsletter is packed full of interesting news to help in your educational interests.  Please share it with your family, friends, and, of course, your sweetheart.

The articles in this month’s newsletter include:

• What We Need to Eliminate HCV, by Alan Franciscus. The multimedia review journal Clinical Liver Disease published a series of articles that provided important information about the tools needed to eliminate hepatitis C (HCV). This report is a review of the articles and is specific to the United States. It doesn’t address the political issues that are equally, if not more, important.
• I Heart Liver by Lucinda Porter, RN. Sometimes it takes a hepatitis C diagnosis for us to pay attention to the fact that we each have a liver. We learn where the liver is, what it does, and how essential it is. However, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects more than just the liver. HCV affects the entire body, particularly the heart and cardiovascular system. Since February is American Heart Month, it is a perfect time to discuss the relationship between the liver and its neighbor, the heart. In particular, we will explore ways to improve cardiovascular health. This information is good for everyone, with or without hepatitis C.
• Hepatitis Headlines (1) At Stanford, Term ‘Homosexual’ Will No Longer Be Used When Discussing Spread of Hepatitis, (2) Adherence to ‘Healthy Eating Index’ Diet May Reduce Liver Cancer Risk.
• What’s Up! News about the upcoming issue of our last HCV Advocate Newsletter this March, our patient HCV video and Packhealth – a patient resource.

  Yours in Health,

        Alan and the staff of the HCV Advocate

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Check out what we have in store for you in the December Newsletter

Dear Advocaters,

It’s hard to believe that the end of the year is near and the HCV Advocate newsletter is entering its 21st year of publication.  This month we have devoted the entire issue to coverage of The Liver Meeting recently held in San Francisco, CA.  Lucinda Porter, RN and I are reporting on our favorite posters presented at the meeting.  Listed below are the abstracts that we have covered.

• #88 Prevalence of Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection, US States and District of Columbia, 2013-2016
• #202 HCV-RNA Is Readily Detectable in Nasal and Rectal Fluids of Patients with High Viremia
• #203 Chronic Hepatitis C Infection Elicits a Poly-Functional T Cell Immune Response at the Maternal/Fetal Interface to Limit Vertical Transmission
• #490 1-Hour Recovery Time in Subjects Undergoing Percutaneous Liver Biopsy: A Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Project
• #1582 Chronic Hepatitis C and Autoimmune Hepatitis Overlap Syndrome: Fact or Fiction?
• #1588 Hepatitis C Infection in Pregnant American Indian and Alaska Native Women; 2011-2015
• #1591 The Cedar Project: Childhood Sexual Abuse Is a Risk Factor for Hepatitis C Infection Among Young Indigenous People Who Use Drugs in Canada
• #583 Retreatment with SOF/VEL/VOX in Treatment-Experienced Patients with and without HIV: The Resolve Study
• #584 Early Treatment with Direct-Acting Antivirals (DAAs) Saves Medical Costs in Non-Cirrhotic Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C (CHC) Virus Infection in the United States (US)- Patrice Cacoub, et. al.
• #588 Eradication of Hepatitis C Virus Infection by IFN-Free Direct-Acting Antiviral Agents Reduces Hepatocellular Carcinoma Incidence in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C

This is a sample of what is available.  Be sure to read the entire newsletter for all the available content.

We have also reviewed and updated our HCV Advocate Treatment Fact Sheets

 

Best wishes for the Holiday Season from the staff of the HCV Advocate,

        Alan and the staff of the HCV Advocate

 

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Check out what we have in store for you in the October Newsletter

Dear Advocaters,

Halloween is almost here and we have some informative but scary articles in this month’s HCV Advocate newsletter:

• • HealthWise – Jailed for Hepatitis C –  by Lucinda Porter, RN is an informative article about making hepatitis C a crime.  In fact, in some states, it already is a crime.
    “It used to be that having hepatitis C would land you in the doctor’s office. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that it could land me in jail. However, theoretically it could.”
  • Hepatitis Headlines – The drug epidemic and how Russian hackers are trying to mess with our health.
  • Hep C 101 – Nail Care Settings by Alan Franciscus – in this month’s column I discuss safety measures to look for when going to a nail salon or beauty parlor.
  • SnapShots by Alan Franciscus has the following recap on abstracts:
    1. Proton pump inhibitors and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in
       patients with chronic hepatitis B or C—W. Kao, et. al
    2. Lack of patient compliance in real-world practice negatively affects sustained viral response rates to direct-acting agent therapy for hepatitis C –M. C. Marshall, et. al.

    BRIEFLY …

    1. Inovio (INO) initiates phase 1 study on hepatitis C vaccine – Zacks Equity Research
    2. Transplantation of hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody positive, nucleic acid test negative donor kidneys to HCV negative patients frequently results in seroconversion but not HCV viremia
    3. Cardiac transplantation from non-viremic hepatitis C donors
    4. Cost-effectiveness of transplanting HCV-infected livers into uninfected recipients with preemptive antiviral therapy

 

• • What’s Up – We have updated the following Extrahepatic Manifestation Fact Sheets:
    • Essential Cryoglobulinemic Vasculitis
    • Porphyria Cutanea Tarda
    • Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
    • Pruritus
    • Overview of Extrahepatic Manifestations

 

• Watch our patient video about treating and curing HCV.
• Do you have hepatitis C?  Get support.  Get answers.  A free program for patients – PackHealth.

To Your Health and Prosperity,

Alan and the team of the HCV Advocate

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Check out what we have in store for you in the August Newsletter

Greetings Advocaters!

It’s August – the hottest month of the year!  Hot weather brings me to the need to stay well hydrated with water and clear fluids.  To learn more about water read our information factsheet click here http://hcvadvocate.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SEM_Water.pdf

In this month’s HCV Advocate newsletter, the following articles are available:

• HealthWise – Hepatitis C and Sugar by Lucinda Porter, RN – Lucinda discusses effects of sugar on the body, hepatitis C, and fatty liver
• Hepatitis Headlines: (1) State Prisons Fail to Offer Cure to 144,000 Inmates with Deadly Hepatitis C, (2) What’s Being Done to Stop the Spread of Hepatitis A in the Midwest?
• SnapShots by Alan Franciscus:
  • Efficacy of sofosbuvir and velpatasvir, with and without ribavirin, in patients with HCV genotype 3 infection and cirrhosis,
  • Incidence and spontaneous clearance of hepatitis C (HCV) in PWID at the Stockholm needle exchange – importance for HCV elimination,
  • Microenvironment eradication of hepatitis C: A novel treatment paradigm,
  • All‐oral direct‐acting antiviral therapy against hepatitis C virus (HCV) in human immunodeficiency virus/HCV–coinfected subjects in real‐world practice: Madrid coinfection registry findings
• Briefly……
  • Abstract:  Use of ribavirin in viruses other than hepatitis C. A review of the evidence,
  • Genotype from Punjab, India: Expanding classification of hepatitis C virus into 8 genotypes
• What’s Up!
  • The Easy C Guide to HIV and HCV Coinfection
  • HIV/HCV Fact Sheet:  Depression
  • HIV/HCV Coinfection:  What Are Drug Interactions?
  • HIV/HCV Fact Sheet:  The Liver
• Watch our patient video about treating and curing HCV
• Do you have hepatitis C?  Get support.  Get answers.  A free program for patients – PackHealth.

To Your Health,

Alan and the team of the HCV Advocate

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