How is hepatitis C treated? Are there side effects from treatment?
If you have hepatitis C, the goal of treatment is to try and get rid of the virus in your body. If the virus is cleared, that can limit the damage done to your liver. Your doctor will talk to you about starting treatment with antiviral medicines that may help get rid of the virus. The standard medicines for hepatitis C patients are called peginterferons and interferons. These two medicines are usually used together. These drugs work for some, but not all, patients. Depending on the type of hepatitis C virus that you have, the treatment has a 40% to 80% chance of getting rid of the virus. For people infected with the most common type of hepatitis C (genotype 1) in the United States, treatment is successful in 50% of cases. (Studies show that African Americans have a much lower success rate with combination treatment—only 28%.) These drugs have some potentially serious side effects. Most people being treated with interferon have flu-like symptoms early on. These side effects get better w
