It’s coffee break time. Some 200 attendees at the Canadian Symposium on Hepatitis C have just applauded one of the many brilliant speakers. The symposium is three-quarters over, and so far I’ve learned that researchers in hepatitis C are pressing to get more people tested. But once they are tested, the jury in this field is out on whether they should be treated–yet.

Many researchers suggest that treatment wait for at least stage 3 fibrosis. That would be less of a burden on Canada’s health care resources. But it leaves those who have been diagnosed having to contend with the ticking time-bomb feeling.

I went through that feeling. It was for a very short time because, luckily–or unluckily–I was at stage three. And luckily I was cured through Gilead’s Solvaldi and Janssen’s Galexos–and no interferon. But even the short wait I had before treatment produced a creepy feeling. It felt like a tiny creature was colonizing my body, and it had fangs that could bite any time.

People are sipping coffee, and we will all be heading into a few more sessions soon. One will be a debate on the very topic I’m writing about. I’ll let you know whether one side wins.