photo of pegasys medication

Pegylation is a general way to make injected medications last longer in the body - a weekly injection is better than a daily or every other day injection. Roche (Pegasys) interferon and ribavirin medication can be seen in the photograph above. Interferon is a natural substance that your body normally makes in response to a virus infection. For example, if during an influenza or other cold virus infection, the virus infects the linings of the throat and nose causing sore throat and runny nose. The body responds to the infection by turning on the immune system. One of the immune responses is to make interferon. These immune responses are responsible for the other features of flu, namely fever, sore muscles and joints, headaches, tiredness, disturbed sleep, poor concentration, irritability, depression, etc. These are the same side effects of interferon treatment. When interferon is used to treat hepatitis C, it turns on the body's immune system to fight viruses in general. However, interferon treatment may go on for 6 months to 1 year and we have to deal with the side effects. For more information on some of the psychiatric side effects, click here. Interferon also slows down the bone marrow, where the blood cells are made. This can result in low counts of red cells (anemia), platelets, and white blood cells.