State of the Art Treatment of Hepatitis C

Abstract

Over the last decade, chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection has seen a dramatic change in the success of treatment with the evolution of standard-of-care. While 24 week standard interferon-alpha monotherapy led to sustained viral response rates in the range of 5 to 10%, current standard-of-care with pegylated interferon and ribavirin has improved overall sustained viral response to 50%. However, there are significant differences between genotypes. Genotype 1a and 1b, which are the dominant viral genotypes in the developed world, are associated with sustained viral response rates of almost 50% in Europe and about 40% in the United States, while genotypes 2 and 3 are associated with response rat..