Going Overseas

In just over a week, I'm off overseas for six months on a "working holiday". Well actually it's more work than holiday. OK, in reality, it's going to be all work and no holiday. Anyway, they say that a change is as good as a rest, and I'm really looking forward to it. It's totally different kind of work than I've never done before, and it's going to be an awesome challenge. Just what I need.
Then, when I get back home, I'm going to start my treatment. I was intending to wait another 6 months after I got home, to finish with my current job, but I've decided that I can handle the job and the treatment at the same time.
Speaking of treatment, it's been interesting reading what a couple of people have said about how pegylated interferon is normal procedure in most places. Crikey - I wonder if it isn't somewhat of a hazard living on a little island in the middle of nowhere.

It's Pegylated

Right... in resonse to Ron's question... here's what I've found out about the difference between the treatments:

The cheap/usual treatment is Interferon and Ribavin. It has around a 60% success rate.
The newer treatment is Pegylated Interferon and Ribavin. That's the one that has an 80% success rate.

In NZ, to qualify for the better treatment you have to have advanced fibrosis in genoype 3.

So that's all I know. When I have some more time I'll need to do some research to find out what on earth "Pegylated" means!

The "Better" Treatment

In response to Steve, who wants to know what the "better" treatment is that I qualify for...

Well, all I know is that this treatment has a better chance of success, but I don't know why. Hepatitis C treatment is constantly being improved, and they're coming up with better and better treatments all the time. And I suppose this must be the latest one.

The newer, better treatments cost more than the older ones. Here in NZ, the public health system supplies Hep C sufferers with the old treatment free of charge (well, it comes out of our taxes). The new treatment isn't available to people in the public system. You can get it privately, if you pay for it yourself. The cost is around $NZ15,000.

So most Hep C sufferers in NZ get the old treatment. Only the people who are in a really bad way (and I'm not sure where the mark is) qualify to get the new treatment.

The thing I find a bit disturbing about the public health system in NZ is that you're not given a lot of information. For example, I only found out by chance that there was a new treatment available. Heck, I'd have been prepared to pay the fifteen Grand myself to get the good treatment if I knew it existed.

In a way, it's cool that there's a system that takes care of the people. But I think taking informed choices away from the people is going a bit far. There's a danger of breeding a nation of people who don't take responsibility for their own lives.