Hepatitis C News

Results of a recent study provided continued confirmation that increased rates of hepatocellular carcinoma among patients treated with direct-acting antivirals compared with interferon correlated with patient characteristics such as age and liver function rather than treatment.

Researchers identified four patients with a novel hepatitis C genotype, according to study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplantation and longer pancreas ischemic times were risk factors for surgical site infections, according to study results recently published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

A vaccine that would provide incomplete immunity against hepatitis C virus could still reduce the spread of the virus among drug users sharing syringes, according to study results published in Science Translational Medicine.

Kidney transplant with a kidney infected with hepatitis C virus, followed by treatment for the hepatitis C, was effective and reduced costs compared with transplant with an uninfected kidney after hepatitis C treatment, according to new research published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Liver disease-related mortality rates varied significantly by geographic region in the Untied States with some of the highest rates in the South and the West, in areas with higher Hispanic populations, and areas of lower household income, according to a recently published study.

Results of recent study in France showed that universal hepatitis C screening was the most effective strategy and was cost-effective when treatment was initiated regardless of patient fibrosis stage.

Patients with hepatitis C genotype 3 with compensated cirrhosis achieved a sustained virologic response rate higher than 90% after treatment with Epclusa with or without ribavirin, according to results of a recently published phase 3 study.

Hepatitis C with comorbid alcohol use disorder correlated with increased depression and anxiety, dysregulated cytokine expression, and compromised blood-brain barrier function, according to a recently published study.

To expand the organ donor pool, physicians in the United States have begun transplanting kidneys and livers from hepatitis C-infected donors into HCV-negative recipients who are treated with direct-acting antivirals, or DAAs. Infectious Disease News asked Christine M. Durand, MD, assistant professor of medicine and oncology and a transplant infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, about the ethics of giving someone an infection they did not already have. Durand helped launch the EXPANDER trial at Johns Hopkins, a small study of 10 HCV-negative patients who received HCV-positive kidneys.