Child 15 years old infected with Hepatitis C can Interferone be effective in this case please advice?

yes ,Child 15 years old infected with Hepatitis C can Interferone be effective in this case please advice?
YES! And do not let ANYONE tell you any different! The EARLIER YOU TREAT, the MORE FAVORABLE THE OUTCOME.





It does NOT MATTER if his alt and/or asts are normal or high. It does NOT MATTER if his viral load is a little or a lot.....


It does NOT MATTER if he is showing symptoms or other of the 150 bi-directional diseases or seems fine or feels okay.....





TREAT NOW. If he has a harder to treat genotype it is IMPERRATIVE you seek a doctor who will treat him.


Treating now will GREATLY increase his chance of a sustained viralogic response!!!!! (CURE!)





The younger you are the better too-in this case!!!





**Also, if you think he was infected 7 months ago....how do you know he did not have it prior to the surgery? He could of been infected at birth from of course the birth mother, or he could of been infected through dental work ect..ect....there are thousands of ways to become infected with hcv.....(this statement is due to my HCV advocacy...always make a person think....) Many do not even know they have hcv and there are over 5 million in the United States alone with it!





As for it NOT being a form of chemotherapy-??? It IS a form of chemotherapy. Antiviral chemotherapy....why do they call it that? Well, HCV CAN CAUSE CANCER (it is well known now that certain chronic viral infections can cause cancer.)


Doctors also call it antiviral chemotherapy because it can make one feel as though they are on chemotherapy, you can lose weight, it affects your white and red cell counts, you can lose hair.......





As for extreme side effects? Children seem to tolerate antiviral chemotherapy a bit better than adults. Treatment side effects are sort of like the flu....they do not last the entire time on treatment....they usually last 6 hours after injection up to 48 hours after that. By drinking water you greatly reduce the symptoms.





Also, please be advised that many who became seriously ill either had secondary diseases we now know may contradict a persons ability to be on treatment. We also know that many became ill because of the injection of the medications directly into the bloodstream (this will make you VERY SICK)


We now know that antidepressans and anti-anxiety meds make treatment much smoother. And, WATER. Water is GREAT- it keeps you cool, flushed and hydrated!!!


STAYING POSITIVE helps too....not all of this unprofessional negativity...( a good nurse or doctor will NOT BE NEGATIVE, but they will be INFORMATIVE).


AND.....there is NO NORMALCY WITH CHRONIC HCV INFECTION. People should FEAR HCV and NOT IT'S TREATMENT.





Peginterferon plus ribavirin is standard therapy for adults with chronic hepatitis C. As no data are available for children, the aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of peginterferon alfa-2b in combination with ribavirin in chronically infected children. Genotypes, alanine aminotransferase levels, and different routes of viral transmission were considered.





In an open-labeled, uncontrolled pilot study, 62 children and adolescents (range, 2-17 years) were treated with subcutaneous peginterferon alfa-2b at a dose of 1.5 g/kg body weight once per week plus oral ribavirin (15 mg/kg A day) for 48 weeks.





Sixty-one patients completed the study.





Twenty-three children discontinued therapy after 6 months according to study protocol.





Sustained viral response was documented in 22 (47.8%) of 46 patients with genotype 1, in 13 (100%) of 13 with genotype 2 or 3, in 1 of 2 with genotype 4, in 19 (70.4%) of 27 children with parenteral, in 12 (48%) of 25 with vertical, and in 5 of 9 with unknown route of infection.





Overall, anti-viral chemotherapy treatment was well tolerated. Nevertheless, some side effects were present in all treated patients. Eighty-three percent had leucopenia, but only 3 individuals required dose reduction and 10.3% developed thyroid autoantibodies and thyroid dysfunction.





In conclusion, combination treatment of peginterferon alfa-2b with ribavirin showed encouraging results and was well tolerated in children and adolescents with chronic hepatitis C. Weekly dosing of peginterferon alfa-2b is a considerable advance for this age group.





And....this is not the latest information either. It has been three years since the article above was written.





There should be more updated information available this year or early next year regarding pediatric treatment with antiviral chemotherapy as there are newer forms of the treatment and are in clinical trials and studies as we speak.





Last, but not least- If I had a child with HCV I would opt for treatment. Early treatment will increase the chance of a viralogic response. (or cure!)





Whomever it was...thanks ffor the thumbs down....But really, you can't disagree with PROOF.





**Edited**


This article was given to me by a collegue and is more recent as it discusses the safety of ribavirin with interferon.


Also, I too agree with Stephanie.


Here is a great article based on the year 2005, regarding children and antiviral chemotherapy.





Interferon with Ribavirin Is Safe and Effective for Children with Chronic Hepatitis C





Nearly half of 118 children with chronic Hepatitis C virus (HCV) treated with a combination of interferon-alfa-2b and an optimized dose of ribavirin achieved sustained viral response, and side effects were generally mild. These results are reported in the November 2005 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).





HCV is usually asymptomatic in children though it can lead to serious liver damage. Treatment with interferon is standard and induces lasting remission in more than a third of infected children. The addition of ribavirin to treatment with interferon has been shown to markedly improve outcomes for adults with HCV, but the combination has not been extensively studied in children.





Led by Regino González-Peralta, M.D. of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at the University of Florida, researchers addressed combination therapy for children with a twofold program.





The first part searched for the optimal dose of ribavirin for children with HCV while testing the drug’s safety and efficacy. Fifty-six children, ages five to 16, were randomly assigned to take interferon along with ribavirin in varying doses for 48 weeks. They were evaluated for efficacy and side effects at regular intervals, and followed-up for an additional 24 weeks.





By the end of the follow-up period, 35 percent of children taking 8 mg/kg/day of ribavirin, 37 percent taking 12 mg/kg/day, and 47 percent of 15/mg/kg/day had undetectable levels of HCV in their blood. Side effects were similar among all doses. Based on this data, the researchers selected the dosage 15 mg/kg/day for further study.





In all, 118 children with HCV received the optimized treatment—interferon with 15 mg/kg/day of ribavirin. They were evaluated regularly throughout treatment and follow-up to determine viral response and assess and manage side effects. At the end of the study, 46 percent (54/118) had achieved sustained viral response. Children with HCV genotype 2/3 had higher sustained virologic response rates than those with HCV genotype 1.





All subjects experienced some side effects, but most were mild, the most common being flu-like symptoms. Severe side effects included anemia, neutropenia, depression and suicidal thoughts, and one child in the study attempted suicide. The researchers responded to adverse side effects by dose modification in 37 (31%), and 8 subjects (7%) completely discontinued treatment because of adverse events.





As in previous studies, children in this one exhibited growth inhibition while receiving the therapy, however, they typically experienced height and weight catch-up gains after it ended. Interestingly, none of the African-American children in the study had a sustained virologic response to combination therapy. “The number of African-American children studied was too small to draw firm conclusions,” say the authors. But this observation matches previous reports that African-American adults have lower response rates to combination therapy.





Overall, “our studies demonstrate that interferon alfa 2b in combination with oral ribavirin is effective and reasonably safe for the treatment of childhood chronic hepatitis C,” the authors conclude.





Importantly, “Sustained virologic response rates in children with chronic HCV given interferon alfa-2b with ribavirin in these studies are higher than in those using interferon alone.”





11/02/05





Reference


R P González-Peralta and others (for the International Pediatric Hepatitis C Therapy Group). Interferon Alfa-2b in Combination with Ribavirin for the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C in Children: Efficacy, Safety, and Pharmacokinetics. Hepatology 42(5): 1010-1018.). November 2005.Child 15 years old infected with Hepatitis C can Interferone be effective in this case please advice?
I have had so many kids brought to our office that are infected with Hep C. We usually tell them this, a person can live a perfectly normal and otherwise healthy life with Hep C as long as the liver is not damaged too much. In this case of the 15 year old, I really doubt if he has any damage to his liver to be concerned about. The treatment for Hep C is a very intense treatment and has extreme side effects on some people. This childs viral load is not all that bad. I have seen viral loads over 5 million and the patient did not get treatment. Yes, the treatment can be effective for this child, but the question is...do you want to put him through this at this time??? I'm talking about the real possibility of be coming so anemic from the ribavirin that he has to have blood transfusions, losing a lot of his hair, being so tired all the time that he may not be able to go to school for a year, being very susceptible to other infections that can be dangerous to him, forgetfulness, nausea, diarrhea, throwing up when he smells certain things....the list goes on. I can't believe he got it from a surgical procedure, this is almost unheard of these days. Anyhow, not all people with Hepatitis C really have to go through treatment. Unless he is doing something like drinking alcohol, or doing drugs, the disease will not damage his liver at a high rate. It's when you start introducing poisions to the body that make the disease actually progress. I have seen many patients that have had this disease for decades and they have not had increased liver damage and chose not to have treatment. In some circles, (usually people that call themselves ';so informed'; about Hep C) they call the ribavirin, interferon treatment...viral chemo. It is not a true chemo, although it is used to treat some strains of breast cancer and melonoma. You need to talk with this childs doctor in a very intense question and answer session and decide if you want to put this child through this program. It does NOT cure Hepatitis C, it actually only makes it ';inactive'; if the treatment is successful. It has a success rate of about 75 to 80% of helping a person. He will always have the virus in his body. He can still pass it to others. But having the treatment allows the liver to heal. This is the important thing. Hepatitis C can resurface if the person suffers extreme stress or a severe illness. We have had quite a few patients whose viral loads were 0 for up to 6 years and then had it resurface. So this treatment is buy no means a cure....there is no cure. Another myth is that a liver transplant will cure the disease.....wrong. It will give you a healthy liver to work with, but the Hep C will show again about 3 years after the transplant, then you can start treatment. This is what those that have a lot of liver damage (usually stage 3 or just about cirrohisis) will do. If you have stage 3 liver damage, you are not a good canidate for treatment. My advice is to let this kid have a normal life. He does not need treatment at this time. Make sure he knows not to drink and stays away from drugs...this is the most important thing You can email me if you have more questions.