Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Mar 15;7(1):31-6.
Epub 2014 Mar 25.

Hepatitis C treatment & management

D Andronescu  1 , S Diaconu  1 , N Tiuca  1 , R M Purcarea  2 , C I Andronescu  1
Affiliations

Hepatitis C treatment & management

D Andronescu et al. J Med Life. .

Abstract

Combination therapy with pegylated interferon alfa (PEG-IFN alfa) and the nucleoside analogue ribavirin is the current standard of care in patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Patients with HCV genotype 1 have a much less favorable response to therapy and are treated for 12 months, compared with patients infected with genotypes 2 and 3, in whom a 6-month course of therapy is sufficient. If viremia is present after 6 months, additional therapy has a negligible benefit, and treatment should be stopped in all patients regardless of the viral genotype. With HIV coinfection, all patients with a response to therapy at the end of 6 months should receive an additional 6 months of combination therapy regardless of the genotype. Patients with acute HCV infection should be treated for 6 months. The addition of protease inhibitors to the combination of PEG-IFN alfa and ribavirin is becoming the new standard of care for the treatment of chronic HCV infection. Regimens that include a protease inhibitor significantly improve sustained virologic response rates in patients with genotype 1 HCV infection.

Keywords: hepatitis C; interferons; protease inhibitors; ribavirin.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PEG – IFN Alfa 2b + RBV Virologic Response by Genotype (Manns [])
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
2 Response – guided treatment algorithm for boceprevir. HCV, hepatitis C virus; Peg-IFN/RBV, pegylated interferon/ribavirin. A: Naïve, undetectable HCV RNA at weeks 8 and 24. B: Naïve, detectable HCV RNA at week 8 and undetectable HCV RNA at week 24. C: Experienced, undetectable HCV RNA at weeks 8 and 24. D: Experienced, detectable HCV RNA at week 8 and undetectable HCV RNA at week 24. E: Cirrhosis
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Response – guided treatment algorithm for telaprevir. HCV, hepatitis C virus; Peg-IFN/RBV, pegylated interferon/ribavirin. A: Naïve, undetectable HCV RNA at weeks 4 and 12. B: Naïve, detectable HCV RNA at weeks 4 and/or 12; all experienced patients; naïve, cirrhotic, undetectable HCV RNA at weeks 4 and 12
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Dhawan VK. Hepatitis C. Treatment & Management. Updated. 2013
    1. Poynard T, Marcellin P, Lee SS. Randomised trial of interferon alpha2b plus ribavirin for 48 weeks or for 24 weeks versus interferon alpha2b plus placebo for 48 weeks for treatment of chronic infection with hepatitis C virus. International Hepatitis Interventional Therapy Group (IHIT). Lancet. 1998;352:1426–1432. - PubMed
    1. Manns MP, McHutchison JG, Gordon SC. Peginterferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin compared with interferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin for initial treatment of chronic hepatitis C: a randomised trial. Lancet. 2001;358:958–965. - PubMed
    1. Fried MW, Shiffman ML, Reddy KR. Peginterferon alfa-2a plus ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C virus infection. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:975–982. - PubMed
    1. Hadziyannis SJ, Sette H Jr, Morgan TR. Peginterferon-alpha2a and ribavirin combination therapy in chronic hepatitis C: a randomized study of treatment duration and ribavirin dose. Ann Intern Med. 2004;140:346–355. - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources