At the time, the medication Joey was taking kept the disease from progressing. But it had debilitating side effects.
“I would feel the side effects like days after. It would kind of linger on, then finally when I would start feeling good, it would be time to take another shot. So it’s like a never-ending cycle,” he said.
Dr. Fred Poordad of the Texas Liver Institute and the University of Texas Health Science Center was running a case study with a new treatment when he crossed paths with the Libbys.
“We now have therapies that can actually cure Hepatitis C without causing a lot of grief and side effects with the patient,” Poordad said.
Daclatasvir, a new combination of previous drugs, has a 94 percent cure rate for patients with liver transplant and returning Hepatitis C and 83 percent for patients with advanced cirrhosis.
After just 12 weeks of treatment, both mother and son were cured.
“Now I’m to the point to where I am confident about anything I will do. Anything, you know… conquer the world if I have to. Nothing is going to hold me back,” he said.
If you were born between 1945 and 1965, doctors recommend that you get tested for Hepatitis C.
Doctors say there are a good number of treatment options out there, but the treatment the Libbys received won’t be widely available until late summer.
Source: S.A. Hep C patients free of disease following new treatment
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