Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Story So Far

I received the Hep C virus through infected blood products. As a haemophiliac it was only a matter of time: most haemophiliacs suffered the same way. At least I was fortunate enough not to get HIV as well; unlike many. It was a terrible body blow for the haemophiliac community. As if life was not hard enough. Still these were the cards dealt and we have to live with them.

My doctors have been encouraging me to go on Interferon treatment for over twenty years. I have to admit to being very suspicious of the process. The statistics have always seemed dodgy to me. There are many types of Hep C virus and mine is the most difficult to quell. Until recently the stats just did not seem worth the risks to me. Now they say there is a 50/50 chance of success. Unfortunately I have been unable to get stats for the response of haemophiliacs specifically. I can't believe someone out there has not collated them.

Though I guess we are not so different from others I do suspect H's have been infected repeatedly due to the manufacturing of, Factor 8, the blood product that we all have to take to stop bleeding. In the bad old days, all of the blood from donors was mixed together to create the product. Clearly you only needed one bottle of bad blood to infect an entire batch which was given to thousands. Hence the widespread infection and probable reinfection.

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