>> [Background Music] you know I don't even remember what came prior
to the announcement, the discovery.
I just know that my life changed forever.
I know that I went for my yearly checkup, like I had done for ever and ever and ever.
And low and behold, I'm at dinner that night, the phone rings,
somebody says it's your doctor and she broke the news to me.
I had Hepatitis C.
>> It's been estimated that roughly 3 to 4 million Americans are infected
with Hepatitis C. Well, what is Hepatitis C?
Basically it's a virus that causes inflammation and damage to the liver.
A few years back, the only treatment we can offer
to our patient is a combination of interferon and ribavirin.
And the treatment was not that effective either or only about 40 percent
or so of patients would actually respond to the treatment despite a year of gruesome treatment.
And that's the reason why a lot of patients used to say, so why bother to get tested
because I don't think I want to take that though treatment
and it's not going to work for me anyway.
But now things have completely changed.
>> I first learned about Dr. Lok and her research team,
the real struggle became this might be believable, this might work but no,
it's not possible, it's not possible, it's too easy, it's too easy.
I mean you take a couple of pills and a day and that's it.
>> We got 4 new drugs approved within the last 3 years.
That makes treatment much more easy to accept.
Because people no longer need to get themselves injections,
no longer need to worry about all these side effects.
But more importantly this treatment has now become so simple.
They are very short with 12 weeks of just pills alone we can actually achieve 90 percent,
95 percent cure rate for most patients.
Provided that they are diagnosed early.
>> I have seen enough that I know, I'm cured.
And I have heard those words; I have heard the "C" word from Dr Lok.
I never thought I was ever going to see, to hear it.
She never used it, never used it, would not pretend until she looked
at me and she said "You're cured."
>> Hepatitis C like many medical diseases doesn't give you symptoms until very very late.
And sometimes we might get a patient so late that the only hope is a liver transplantation.
And the only way to really find out early is to request a testing by your doctor.
It's a simple blood test.
>> I just know that this is, anybody who is sick in my family
or my friends they, they are going to this hospital.
They are going to my hospital for sure and nowhere else.
I don't, I don't trust anywhere else.
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