New medicine hailed as a breakthrough for Hepatitis C

Canine-hepatitis-c-virus                                       Meg Farris / Eyewitness News
Email: mfarris@wwltv.com |
In a few days, doctors in Louisiana will start prescribing a new medicine being called a breakthrough for people with hepatitis C.
That's good news for 60,000 people in the state living with the liver-destroying virus.
And a Denham Springs man was in the clinical trial and was one of the first to possibly be cured.
Mark Newman is one of the nearly 4 million people in the U.S. who contracted hepatitis C.
In the 80s, many baby boomers got it through blood transfusions before the medical community knew about the virus. While the blood supply is clear now, you can also get it by sharing contaminated drug or tattoo needles and in rare cases, sharing contaminated manicure and pedicure tools and toothbrushes. It is very rare for the virus to be transmitted through sex...Continue reading...