hepatitis C treatment
DETROIT -- Extending hepatitis C treatment for liver transplant patients beyond current practice results in high rates of clearance of the hepatitis C virus from the blood, as well as a low rate o
More than seventy percent of people who contract Hepatitis C will live with the virus that causes it for the rest of their lives and some will develop serious liver disease including cancer. However, 30 to 40 percent of those infected somehow defeat the infection and get rid of the virus with no treatment.
Bethesda, MD (Sept. 1, 2009) -- Sexual impairment is common among men with chronic hepatitis C undergoing antiviral therapy, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers have identified the first genetic marker that predicts response to hepatitis C treatments, and a single letter of DNA code appears to make a huge difference.
NEW YORK (June 4, 2009) -- For patients with the most common form of hepatitis C, the addition of a hepatitis C-specific protease inhibitor called telaprevir to the current standard therapy can significantly improve the chances of being cured, and it does it in half the time of standard therapy alone.
The preferred treatment for hepatitis C, peg-interferon and ribavirin, is safe for people who are also infected with HIV, according to a new study in the July 29 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Moreover, this treatment proved superior for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in HIV-coinfected persons when compared with the previously accepted treatment, standard interferon and ribavirin.
African-Americans have a significantly lower response rate to treatment for chronic hepatitis C than non-Hispanic whites, according to a new study. Some African-Americans ? 19 percent ? did respond to the drug combination of peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin. But in non-Hispanic whites with the same disease, the hepatitis C genotype 1 virus strain, 52 percent had no evidence of the virus in their blood six months after completing the drug therapy ? one of the highest response rates ever reported for this therapy.
A researcher has reported results from a study with a drug combination that showed the highest hepatitis C treatment response rates ever reported in patients infected with hepatitis C and HIV virus. The multinational study found that the drug combination of Pegasys and Copegus were much more effective than the previous generation of hepatitis C therapy standard interferon and ribavirin. Efficacy was measured as the sustained virological response (SVR) rate, which is defined by the absence of detectable HCV RNA in the serum for at least six months after treatment.
