am sitting in the Singapore airport where I have just been catching up with my social media by going through discussion threads in my Facebook hep C support group, Hepatitis C Treatment Cure and Community.

Over the past week there has been a lot of discussion about the side effects of Harvoni and other hepatitis C treatments with direct acting antivirals (DAAs).

Because there has been so much discussion a few people have become fearful about doing treatment. So in this post I will focus on the side effects of Harvoni (sofosbuvir 400 mg + ledipasvir 90 mg) because that is what is mostly being talked about. However what I a writing can be equally applied to Mavyret or Epclusa or any of the other new hepatitis C treatments.

All Drugs Have Side Effects
Firstly I would point out that most people will have either, no side effects or minor side effects but that a few people, less that 5%, will have side effects that are difficult.

Secondly I would point out that whilst treatment may have some side effects for some people those side effect are less than the side effects of having chronic hepatitis C.

Lastly I would make the point that all medication has some kind of side effects, obvious or subtle and that this will vary a lot from person to person.

For example, my wife is allergic to penicillin. If she took penicillin, the side effects would be fatal. Most people have no problem with taking penicillin.

Severe Side Effects From Harvoni Are Rare
In the time that I have been talking to people doing hep C treatment, since 2015, I have personally communicated with many thousands of doing DAA treatment, with Epclusa, Harvoni, sofosbuvir + daclatasvir, Mavyret and Zepatier … Even people doing treatment with interferon.

In all that time (excluding Interferon) I have only come across a handful of people who had a really tough time doing their treatment. Maybe half a dozen.

(With interferon everyone had a tough time.)

I took Sovaldi + ribavirin for 12 weeks and the only issue I had was insomnia.

To read the rest of this entry, click here. Greg’s blog is reprinted with permission, and the views are entirely his.