Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] My brother 50 year old genotype 1 Hepatitis C probably for about 45 years due to blood transfusion at age 5 for heart surgery. Now has 1+ protein in urine doc says from Hepatitis C should he be treated --looking at Harvoni Thank you in advance for your help. Marian
[|AI|]  Hello, Welcome to Chat Doctor, Medical literature shows that antiviral medicines are used to treat long-term (chronic) hepatitis C. These medicines can help prevent the hepatitis C virus from damaging your liver. Sometimes treatment doesn't permanently lower the amount of virus in your blood. But some studies have shown that treatment may still reduce scarring in your liver, which can lower your chances of developing cirrhosis and liver cancer. Further medicines to treat hepatitis C don't work for everyone. Chronic hepatitis C infection is cured or controlled in about half of the people who are treated with a combination of peg interferon and Riboviria. I suggest you discuss this with a gastroenterologist (specialist in liver diseases) and then your doctor will decide what is good for you depending on further testing. Thank you.