Medicina Fluminensis, Vol. 43. No. 2., 2007.
Review article
TREATMENT OF HEPATITIS C
Davor Štimac
; Department of gastroenterology, Clinical hospital center Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
Jelena Luzer
; School of medicine, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Sandra Milić
; Department of gastroenterology, Clinical hospital center Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
SUMMARY
It is estimated that the number of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients all round the world amounts to 170 million persons and it is likely to expect that the disease progression from acute to chronic ranges between 55% – 85%. The paper sets out the present knowledge on hepatitis C therapy, compares and contrasts the existing treatment methods, points at the disease side
effects and offers an insight into a future therapy trends. Nowadays, the standard HCV infection is cured by pegylated interferon and ribavirin within 24 – 48 weeks, depending on the genotype and viral response. Some special categories of patients require modified therapy. In future it is assumed that a number of new medicines, such as specific inhibitors and particularly vaccines are going to be developed thus enabling a more efficient treatment of HCV infected patients.
Keywords
hepatitis C virus (HCV); pegylated interferon; ribavirin; side effects
Hrčak ID:
22567
URI
Publication date:
25.6.2007.
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