Chronic hepatitis C

Chronic Hepatitis C

The goal of antiviral therapy for patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is to attain a sustained virologic response (SVR), which is defined as undetectable serum HCV-RNA levels at 6 months after the cessation of treatment. Major improvements in antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C have occurred in the past decade. The addition of ribavirin to interferon-alfa therapy and t...

Historical treatment of chronic hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis C.

Interferon is currently considered to be the only accepted effective treatment for chronic viral hepatitis. A history of the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C before the use of interferon is presented here. Hepatitis B virus does not seem to be directly cytopathic and the disease is known to be modulated largely by the host's immune response. Experience with immunosuppressant and immunosti...

Hepatitis C Virus Genotyping in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients

Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is a massive worldwide healthcare burden with estimated costs in the USA alone of over $5 billon per annum. The virus has a 9.5kb positive sense single-stranded RNA genome with striking heterogeneity between isolates, which has led to it being divided into 6 genotypes and more than 50 subtypes and many quasispecies that has been arisen due to the infidelity o...

Rosuvastatin and chronic hepatitis C

The prospective randomized clinical trial of Malaguarnera and colleagues, published in the current issue of Hepatitis Monthly, investigates the potential role of a commercially available HMG Co-A reductase agent—rosuvastatin (Crestor, Astra Zeneca)—in combination with non-pegylated interferon and ribavirin in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (HCV). HMG Co-A reductase agents, commonly referr...

 Atherosclerosis and chronic hepatitis C.