Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler has been secretly battling hepatitis C — a serious viral infection of the blood, often associated with dirty needles, that can lead to chronic liver disease. But the 58-year-old recovering drug addict tells "Access Hollywood’s" Nancy O’Dell that after a year of interferon treatments, "It is nonexistent in my bloodstream … where it’s like a complete cure." In an interview airing tomorrow night, Tyler says he was diagnosed three years ago but "I’ve had hepatitis C for a long time, asymptomatic. "I’ve been pretty quiet about this," he says. "The band took a break about three years ago. … [My doctor] said now is the time, and it’s 11 months of chemotherapy" — actually, interferon, which strengthens the immune system — "so I went on that, and it about killed me." Tyler — who’s on tour with Mötley Crüe and will be featured tonight as a hard-partying neighbor on the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" — continues: "You know, it really hurt. It was a bad, bad period. I’m in AA, and I tried to go three, four, five months with nothing, and it about killed me." Tyler’s marriage to clothing designer Teresa Barrick was falling apart at the time of his treatments, and they were divorced earlier this year. "I had a little problem at home, to say the least," he says, "and I would run upstairs at night, you know, to put the kids asleep and wake up at 3 in the morning with a nosebleed — you know, just passed out from the interferon, the treatment. It’s a shot and pills and all of that. But the good news is I stood the test of time." About 4.5 million Americans suffer from hepatitis C, which is hard to detect but can cause scarring of the liver and lead to cirrhosis. In 2002, Pamela Anderson announced that she, too, has the disease. "Hepatitis C is the one that, of all the people in this room, at least three have it and don’t know it," Tyler says. "It’s the silent killer. I may go on ‘Oprah’ and talk about this. I hope you don’t mind me mentioning that."
Lowdown
This explains why he dropped out of sight. Glad he is fianlly getting better.
