Hepatitis C News

When a global mission is set forth such as the global pledge to eradicate hepatitis by 2030, it is often seen as inactionable language and yet, that language is the foundation by which we have hope to make progress toward our lofty goals.

For the last decade, those of us involved in the field of viral hepatitis have rallied together around a vision: a world where people living with viral hepatitis have access to safe and affordable care and treatment, transmission is halted and people do not face social marginalization and inequality.

In this issue, HCV Next asks five questions of Ravi Jhaveri, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS, associate professor of Pediatrics in the division of Infectious Diseases at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Jhaveri received his BA in history from Boston University, where he also played on the varsity tennis team. He completed his MD at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1996. It was then to the University of Chicago for a residency in Pediatrics, followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA.

The all-oral HCV combination therapies, Harvoni and Viekira XR both with and without ribavirin demonstrated similarly high real-world sustained virologic response rates in a cohort of Veterans Affairs patients, according to recent findings published in Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Ethiopia still lacks required partnerships and resource mobilization for an effective national health response to viral hepatitis, according to a report published in BMC Public Health.

A novel one-step hepatitis C virus antigens enzyme immunoassay showed 99% specificity and 100% sensitivity in differentiating resolved HCV from viremic HCV, according recent findings published in Hepatology.

Scottish patients with hepatitis C who achieved sustained virologic response had a mortality rate that remained higher than the general population, according to recent findings published in the Journal of Hepatology.

Researchers from Germany found that 8 weeks of Harvoni was safe and effective in patients coinfected with HIV and HCV, according to recent findings published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Epclusa showed a manageable drug interaction profile with commonly used antiretrovirals in treating patients co-infected with chronic HCV and HIV, according to a phase 1 trial.

Patients with hepatitis C virus, but without hepatocellular carcinoma treated with direct-acting antiviral agents saw lower MELD scores and improved liver function, enabling some of them to be removed from the liver transplant list.