Saturday, August 11, 2001
By Mindie Paget
Associated Press
LAWRENCE -- In March 1999, Dennis Kennedy got a bad-news phone call that changed his life forever.
The voice on the line told him he had hepatitis C, a disease caused by a virus that attacks the liver slowly over several decades.
Kennedy had donated blood a few weeks earlier, and Kansas Blood Services detected the virus during routine testing.
So Kennedy, a 43-year-old carpenter for the University of Kansas athletics department, started taking experimental drugs to fight his disease. The drugs since have become standard treatment for hepatitis C, but they only warded infection away from his liver; the hepatitis remains in his bloodstream.
Now he's hoping a new drug being tested at KU Medical Center will help.
Though the medications make him sick and his family must deal with his mood swings, he intends to stick with it until he kicks the disease.
"The reason I volunteer and I'm more or less a guinea pig is because I want to find a cure," Kennedy said. "I'm not going to give up on it."
A silent epidemic
Other patients treated at the Med Center have been cured of hepatitis C, said Srinivasa Vasa, chairman of the center's hepatology department.
Those patients were cured because the disease was discovered in its early stages. When hepatitis C is found within one or two years of its onset, patients have an 80 percent response rate to the drug combination ribavirin and interferon.
But Kennedy's hepatitis C went undiscovered for at least 20 years. His experience is common, which is why hepatitis C is called the "silent epidemic," Vasa said. Patients often go decades without any symptoms.
About 4 million Americans have been infected with hepatitis C, the most common blood-borne illness in this country, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Most likely to have the infection are people who have used intravenous drugs, even once. Others at risk include health care and emergency workers; people with multiple sex partners; and anyone who has been in direct or indirect contact with infected blood.
That could include people who have had tattoos and ear or body piercings with tainted needles.
Party prank
Kennedy's pretty sure he became infected when he was 16 years old at a KU keg party. He passed out, and when he woke up, he had a hole in each ear. Other unconscious revelers woke up to the same surprise ear piercings.
"They used the same gun on everyone," Kennedy said.
His wife and children do not have the disease.
The medication being tested at the KU Med Center trial is a souped-up version of the same interferon Kennedy has tried previously.
Patients inject traditional interferon three times a week, but it disappears from the blood after several hours, Vasa said.
The new drug contains polyethylene glycol, or PEG -- the same chemical used in antifreeze -- which holds the interferon in the blood for almost a week. The drug is called Pegasus.
Kennedy will only have to inject Pegasus once a week.
Early studies have proven Pegasus superior to regular interferon. The family had had second thoughts about continuing the drug tests.
"We want him to get well," Dennis Kennedy's wife, Zoe Ann Kennedy, said. "But the side effects are horrendous."
Living with disease
Dennis Kennedy takes antidepressants and starts a battery of other drugs to manage the side effects each time he goes back on interferon. He takes one pill for joint aches, one for nerves, one to help him eat and one to sleep.
His mood swings can be hard to handle, his wife said.
"The kids and I will leave the house if he gets hateful," she said.
The Kennedys say their church and co-workers have been supportive, but not everyone has been so understanding.
One of Dennis Kennedy's friends wouldn't let him come to his house when he found out he had hepatitis C.
"I kept trying to tell him it's not contagious," Dennis Kennedy said.
By Mindie Paget
Associated Press
LAWRENCE -- In March 1999, Dennis Kennedy got a bad-news phone call that changed his life forever.
The voice on the line told him he had hepatitis C, a disease caused by a virus that attacks the liver slowly over several decades.
Kennedy had donated blood a few weeks earlier, and Kansas Blood Services detected the virus during routine testing.
So Kennedy, a 43-year-old carpenter for the University of Kansas athletics department, started taking experimental drugs to fight his disease. The drugs since have become standard treatment for hepatitis C, but they only warded infection away from his liver; the hepatitis remains in his bloodstream.
Now he's hoping a new drug being tested at KU Medical Center will help.
Though the medications make him sick and his family must deal with his mood swings, he intends to stick with it until he kicks the disease.
"The reason I volunteer and I'm more or less a guinea pig is because I want to find a cure," Kennedy said. "I'm not going to give up on it."
A silent epidemic
Other patients treated at the Med Center have been cured of hepatitis C, said Srinivasa Vasa, chairman of the center's hepatology department.
Those patients were cured because the disease was discovered in its early stages. When hepatitis C is found within one or two years of its onset, patients have an 80 percent response rate to the drug combination ribavirin and interferon.
But Kennedy's hepatitis C went undiscovered for at least 20 years. His experience is common, which is why hepatitis C is called the "silent epidemic," Vasa said. Patients often go decades without any symptoms.
About 4 million Americans have been infected with hepatitis C, the most common blood-borne illness in this country, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Most likely to have the infection are people who have used intravenous drugs, even once. Others at risk include health care and emergency workers; people with multiple sex partners; and anyone who has been in direct or indirect contact with infected blood.
That could include people who have had tattoos and ear or body piercings with tainted needles.
Party prank
Kennedy's pretty sure he became infected when he was 16 years old at a KU keg party. He passed out, and when he woke up, he had a hole in each ear. Other unconscious revelers woke up to the same surprise ear piercings.
"They used the same gun on everyone," Kennedy said.
His wife and children do not have the disease.
The medication being tested at the KU Med Center trial is a souped-up version of the same interferon Kennedy has tried previously.
Patients inject traditional interferon three times a week, but it disappears from the blood after several hours, Vasa said.
The new drug contains polyethylene glycol, or PEG -- the same chemical used in antifreeze -- which holds the interferon in the blood for almost a week. The drug is called Pegasus.
Kennedy will only have to inject Pegasus once a week.
Early studies have proven Pegasus superior to regular interferon. The family had had second thoughts about continuing the drug tests.
"We want him to get well," Dennis Kennedy's wife, Zoe Ann Kennedy, said. "But the side effects are horrendous."
Living with disease
Dennis Kennedy takes antidepressants and starts a battery of other drugs to manage the side effects each time he goes back on interferon. He takes one pill for joint aches, one for nerves, one to help him eat and one to sleep.
His mood swings can be hard to handle, his wife said.
"The kids and I will leave the house if he gets hateful," she said.
The Kennedys say their church and co-workers have been supportive, but not everyone has been so understanding.
One of Dennis Kennedy's friends wouldn't let him come to his house when he found out he had hepatitis C.
"I kept trying to tell him it's not contagious," Dennis Kennedy said.
