Patient Louis Burns told Douglas T. Dieterich, MD: “You are always full of joy and compassion.”
The Institute for Liver Medicine held a special party on Tuesday, March 7, on The Mount Sinai Hospital campus, for an extraordinary group of patients: men and women who have been cured of Hepatitis C.
“It’s rare in medicine that we get to bring people back to celebrate a cure,” Barbara Murphy, MD, Murray M. Rosenberg Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Medicine for the Mount Sinai Health System, told the 85 jubilant patients, who clapped and cheered.
Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by a virus, but most individuals do not have any symptoms until 10 years or more after infection. Without medical treatment, chronic Hepatitis C can eventually cause liver cancer or liver failure. Frequently, patients need liver transplants to survive.
The patients who came together were celebrating their health—and the nine new direct-acting antiviral medications that have transformed treatment and significantly increased cure rates in the last three years. A patient is considered cured if a blood test reveals no presence of virus in the blood 12 weeks after treatment is completed.
“The advances in Hepatitis C treatment have been revolutionary—it is now possible to cure up to 99 percent of patients with virtually no side effects,” says Douglas T. Dieterich, MD, Director, Institute for Liver Medicine, and Professor of Medicine (Liver Diseases), who hosted the celebration. The new medications, given in daily pill form for 8 to 24 weeks, replaced former treatments that had severe side effects, little tolerability, and cure rates of only 20 percent to 30 percent.
“This is astounding scientific progress,” says Dr. Dieterich, who notes that Mount Sinai clinical researchers helped develop the new medications. “Through medication and liver transplants, we have now cured more than 2,000 patients at The Mount Sinai Hospital and a total of 5,000 in the Health System since the beginning of 2014. Still, there remain huge numbers of people who have Hepatitis C who do not even know they have it. Our task now is to identify, test, and treat them.”
Dr. Dieterich, other physicians, and staff, including Alyson Harty, RN, and Maria Rivera, Medical Assistant, were among those singled out by a dozen patients who gave spontaneous testimonials. “I want to give kudos to you, Dr. Dieterich. You are always full of joy and compassion,” said patient Louis Burns. “I am just so grateful for the treatments. You have definitely transformed my life. You have helped us.” Patient Harry Bangel sought Ritu Agarwal, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Liver Diseases) in the crowd, posed for a photograph, and said, “This is the woman who cured me.” Patient Arlene Gray recalled a long-ago memory of being “so afraid” when she was diagnosed. At the party, she spoke of the compassion she felt from the staff. “This is a family of love,” she said. Patient David Jordon smiled and posed with Danielle Carter, MD, fellow, Liver Diseases, and said: “I’m cured. I can’t think of anything better.”