Hepatitis C News

An international study showed that alcohol use disorder contributed significantly to liver disease burden in patients with hepatitis C. Researchers suggest that, where appropriate, countries develop strategies that combine direct-acting antiviral therapy with management of alcohol use disorders.

People who are homeless are more vulnerable to many infectious diseases than the general population and harder to reach for treatment.

Most patients with hepatitis C who were recent injection drug users achieved sustained virologic response after treatment with direct-acting antiviral Epclusa, according to recently published study results.

Hospitalization for hepatitis C increased significantly between 2005 and 2014, especially among baby boomers, men, African-American and Hispanic patients, and patients with mental health and substance abuse disorders, according to data from a Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project statistical brief.

The Canadian Treatment Action Council launched a call-to-action campaign to end hepatitis C in Canada, according to a white paper published by the organization. The authors focused on treatment access policy issues in Canada that must be addressed to achieve the WHO elimination targets by 2030.

On Jan. 23, 2017, Philadelphia city officials announced their support for supervised drug injection sites to combat the ongoing opioid epidemic, which has led to increased rates of infectious disease transmissions such as hepatitis C and HIV.

Results of a recent study showed a significant correlation between the increase of acute hepatitis C cases in the U.S. and the country’s current opioid epidemic. Acute HCV and admissions for opioid injection drug use increased significantly among individuals aged 18 years to 39 years, both men and women, and specific ethnicities.

Direct-acting antiviral therapy was safe and highly effective in patients coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C, according to a recently published study. Factors that negatively affected sustained virologic response rates included HIV-related immunosuppression, HCV RNA load, severity of liver disease and suboptimal DAA-based regimens.

Hepatitis C virus continues to affect millions of people worldwide. WHO estimates that 71 million people are living with chronic HCV infection, and about 399,000 people die from complications of the virus each year, mostly from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Patients with hepatitis C without advanced liver disease who achieved sustained virologic response with direct-acting antiviral therapy had significantly reduced all-cause mortality rates compared with both treated patients who did not achieve SVR and untreated patients, according to a recently published data.