Royal Perth Hospital treatment defuses hepatitis time bomb

A PERTH man who unwittingly contracted hepatitis C from his brother has been given a new lease on life by a revolutionary treatment at RPH.

Charles Reid and Saroj Nazareth at Royal Perth Hospital. Picture: Justin Benson-Cooper

WHEN Charles Reid’s brother Jim returned from the Vietnam War in 1969, he brought home more than physical and emotional scars from being peppered with machinegun bullets.

A lifesaving blood transfusion he received for his wounds in Vietnam was infected with hepatitis C — a fact no one realised for 30 years.

The disease ultimately took Jim’s life, but he also unknowingly infected his brother.

“It was a ticking time bomb,” said Charles, 72, who lost his brother in February 2015.

“Hep C is a terrible disease and it’s awful that it ended up taking my brother. When the doctor told me I had it, I didn’t want to accept it.”

Doctors confirmed both brothers had the disease in 2000 after they had ignored worsening symptoms, including chronic fatigue, for 10 years.

Charles had probably contracted the disease from his brother while they worked as building subcontractors and often received cuts or abrasions.

“I thought there’s no way I could have hep C because, like most people, you assume that hep C is only contracted through illegal drug use, but that’s not the case,” Charles said.

Charles sought treatment, but Jim refused. The medication has only a 60 per cent success rate and major negative side effects, include erratic mood swings.

Despite initial success, the disease returned within three months. The despondent father-of-four gave up on treatment and ignored his health for 15 years until his GP finally convinced him to act last year.

But by then, the untreated hep C — exacerbated by Lynch disease, which made him more prone to cancer — had taken its toll.

Charles had extensive cirrhosis of the liver and liver and bowel cancer.

Doctors quickly removed both cancers and turned to revolutionary hep C drug therapy with a 90 per cent success rate.

In February, Charles began taking the direct-acting antiviral drugs, accessible through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Four weeks later, he was negative for hep C, which has not returned.

Charles said he owed his life to Royal Perth Hospital specialists, including hepatology nurse Saroj Nazareth, who this week will be named Australia’s nurse practitioner of the year.

“The sad reality is that for people who may have undergone treatment for hep C that failed, they haven’t ever bothered to come back, which is a mistake because this new treatment is amazing,” he said.

“I was starting to think I wasn’t going to get a chance to spend more time with my boys and get to know my grandchildren. (But) thanks to everything they’ve done here at RPH, I’m going to be hanging around a bit longer.”

Originally published as Royal Perth Hospital treatment defuses hepatitis time bomb