[HTML1] Hepatitis C is a serious disease. It’s a blood-born virus generally associated with poor lifestyle choices, and it can lie dormant for years. When active, it scars the liver to the point where cancer, cirrhosis or liver failure is often unavoidable. But Dr. Dawn Sears, today’s guest on Your Health Matters, shares hopeful news with show host Christopher Springmann. Dr. Sears, Hepatology Section Chief at Scott & White Healthcare, talks about two new drugs recently approved by the FDA, and how they’re doubling the cure rate. “We’ve had two drugs that we used for the last five to eight years,” says Dr. Sears, “and that’s injections of a drug called Interferon, and pills called Ribavirin. But we’ve had two new drugs which have been approved by the FDA, one of which is called Boceprevir. The other one is called Telaprevir. And what’s exciting about this is our old drugs had a cure rate of about 40 percent. But now, when we combine our old drugs with one or the other of these new pills, we end up with a cure rate of 80 percent.”
More about Dawn Sears
Dr. Dawn M. Sears, MD is Medical Director of Wellness, Chief of Hepatology Section and GI Fellowship Program Director at Scott & White Healthcare’s clinic in Temple, Texas. She earned a B.S. from Texas Women’s University and an M.D. from Texas A&M University College of Medicine, where she now serves as an Assistant Professor of Medicine. She trained in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at Scott & White, where she was appointed in 2004. She is a member of the American College of Gastroenterology, American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, American Gastroenterological Association, American Medical Association, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, American Society for the Study of Liver Diseases, and Texas Medical Association. Dr. Sears’ patient care emphasis at Schott & White is autoimmune hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, colonoscopy, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, pre & post liver transplant management, primary biliary cirrhosis, and viral hepatitis.
More about Scott & White Healthcare
When Arthur C. Scott, M.D. and Raleigh R. White Jr., M.D. began their medical practice in Temple, Texas in 1897, they shared one fundamental conviction: medicine must serve the people. Today, Scott & White Healthcare is a fully integrated health system — the largest multi-specialty practice in Texas and the sixth largest group practice in the nation. Scott & White employs more than 1,100 health care providers and research scientists who care for patients covering 25,000 square miles across Central Texas.
To hear additional Your Health Matters podcasts, click HERE!
© 2011 by On the Path Productions, LLC. All rights reserved.
Recent Comments