We have a cure for hepatitis C — so why aren’t more people getting treatment?
New data shows that among adults under the age of 40, only 1 in 4 people with hepatitis C were cured, despite the availability of highly effective drugs.
In 2005, Nick Voyles was diagnosed with hepatitis C after being released from five years of incarceration. A nurse told him he had only six months to live. He was prescribed a drug cocktail, a combination of interferon and ribavirin, that proved ineffective and gave him severe side effects. “It ripped me apart — the entire treatment was killing me,” Voyles, who lives in Bloomington, Ind., recalled.
Voyles’ experience highlights the challenges that patients faced back when doctors prescribed hepatitis C drugs that turned out to be unsuccessful in treating the viral infection that attacks the liver. Thankfully, in his case, his symptoms resolved after several weeks, and he was eventually able to access a cure.
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