Hepatitis C treatments
At the 2012 meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease in Boston, the results of many trials of new drugs were presented that suggest that it soon may be possible to eradicate hepatitis C virus inalmost all infected patients with fewer side effects from drugs and with shorter durations of treatment.
The prevention of infection with hepatitis C virus ultimately will require the development of a vaccine to prevent spread of infection; however, thedevelopment of a vaccine has been difficult to realise.
Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus is a serious problem. Hepatitis C virus will become a chronic infection in up to 85% of persons infected with the virus.
Although the number of new cases of chronic infection with hepatitis C virus has decreased from a high of 200,000 to 7,000 yearly, over the past 10 to 15 years a large pool of chronically infected patients--approximately three million in the US--has developed that needs treatment.
Chronic infection leads to cirrhosis of the liver and ultimately to failure of the liver, liver cancer, and life-threatening gastrointestinal bleeding.
At these later stages, the only effective treatment has been transplantation of the liver, and hepatitis C virus has become the leading reason for transplantation of the liver in the US.
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