Doctors sometimes talk about PV being in ‘remission’, but this doesn’t necessarily mean there is no disease activity or the disease is cured. It rarely means the patient no longer has to take their medication.

The word remission is generally used to mean that the symptoms are controlled or ‘suppressed’ on treatment rather than to mean the disease has gone. It is confusing and the words ‘controlled’ or ‘suppressed’ would perhaps be easier to understand.

The important thing to remember is that even if you are told you are in remission, your medication should still be continued unless advised otherwise by your specialist.

Once your PV has been in remission for many months on small doses of treatment, and with no sign of any mucosal or skin erosions, your specialist might try to slowly wean you off the treatment. When treatment is stopped completely and there is no sign of PV, i.e. no blisters or erosions, the condition is said to be in complete remission.

Once treatment has been stopped, your specialist will probably want to see you occasionally, perhaps once or twice per year. This is because PV can sometimes come back. If you are in this situation and start to get blisters or erosions, let your specialist know.

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