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Friday, June 9, 2017
News Recap
Somebody Pinch Me
This week saw the release of a report from the Cochrane Collaboration which concluded not only that DAAs were ineffective but that they might also be bad for you and not even cure HCV. The news item was picked up by various media outlets and was hard to miss (No valid evidence $40,000 miracle drug cures hepatitis C – study). Thankfully other researchers from around the world jumped in on this poor excuse for scientific research and took it to task. The best one I’ve seen is a letter from the Hepatitis C Trust to The Guardian (The Hepatitis C Trust responds to study on hepatitis C treatment).
All this followed the release of another news item last week – contradicting the Cochrane study – detailing how Sofosbuvir Reduces Transplant Need and Mortality Rates in Hepatitis C Patients. Strangely the report from Hepatitis News Today said, “Currently, the standard of care in the U.S. for hepatitis C is pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin,” which is really out of date. This phrase was not found in the original report. So…hmmm?? Is there an editor in the house …puleez!
Meanwhile, assuming that sofosbuvir containing regimens are effective, WHO just added Epclusa to its Essential Medicines List (WHO recommends Epclusa, a Hepatitis C Combined Therapy in Just One Pill). And other researchers working on the problem of drug resistance with the new DAAs have come up with more evidence on how the darned things work (Researchers identify how class of drugs blocks Hepatitis C virus replication).
Book Launch
Elizabeth Rains will be launching her new book Demon in My Blood (Greystone Books) at Truffle’s Café in Gibsons, B.C. on Friday, June 16 at 7 p.m. She’ll be signing books and giving away tickets to Bard on the Beach as a door prize. Demon in My Blood can be found at Talewind Books in Sechelt, at Chapters and on Amazon (Hep C: Coping and Curing – Book Launch)
Coming Up!
HepCBC will have Info booths at the following:
- Saturday June 10: HepCBC Info Booth – Uptown Mall, Victoria 11:00 am – 3:00 pm Uptown 3440 Saanich Rd, Victoria
- Monday June 19: Crystal Pool HEP C Info Table, Victoria BC 9:00 am – Noon Crystal Pool & Fitness Centre 2275 Quadra St, Victoria, British Columbia V8T 4C4