Hepatitis C: Are You a Silent... Video Transcript

Webcast Transcript

EMMET KEEFFE, MD: So if you have chronic hepatitis C with cirrhosis, you then enter into a risk for liver cancer. We then ask those individuals to undergo every six months routine testing for the presence of a small tumor, If we're going to find tumor, we want to find it when it's small, when we can do something about that.

If the chronic hepatitis C leads to liver failure, then those individuals we refer to liver transplant centers, and liver transplantation can be lifesaving. Even though the virus returns after the transplant, in the initial five to seven years so far, these individuals do quite well. And we're hoping that over time industry and research will bring us new antivirals for hepatitis C that we can effectively use after transplant.

ANNOUNCER: Although we now have treatments that can effectively fight hepatitis C, myths and the stigma of the disease prevent many at risk from getting diagnosed and tested. Diagnosis is often coincidental and usually happens in the later stages.

EMMET KEEFFE, MD: In the case of hepatitis C, if you've been diagnosed, you've usually been diagnosed already when it's chronic, and you need to explore treatment options if you have hepatitis C.

So the bottom line is, you need to consult a physician, most typically a gastroenterologist or a hepatologist, someone with expertise in liver disease who can give you the right advice about what's going to happen to you and whether or not you're a candidate for antiviral therapy.

ANNOUNCER: The good news for people who are infected with hepatitis C is that research is continuing and the future looks bright.

EMMET KEEFFE, MD: Some of my patients say, "Doc, is this glass half-full or half-empty?" Because we have made progress, but we only eradicate, let's say, 50 percent of our hepatitis C patients. But I predict in the next five or ten years we're going to be eradicating many more individuals who are infected.

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