Hepatitis C News

BOSTON — In this video, Christine M. Durand, MD, a transplant infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, discusses the potential of using organs from donors with HIV or hepatitis C virus infection to address an “organ shortage crisis” in the United States.

In Switzerland, men who have sex with men from other countries likely account for about one-quarter acute hepatitis C infections, according to a study presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, also known as CROI. The researchers recommend joint European scale-up schemes for DAA therapy.

Treatment with the direct-acting antiviral Zepatier for 8 weeks showed high efficacy among HIV-positive men who have sex with men infected with acute hepatitis C, according to study results presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, also known as CROI.

BOSTON — More women than men presented findings at this year’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections — a first for the meeting, according the organizers.

BOSTON — For the first time, at this year’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, more women than men presented findings at the meeting, according to CROI Chair Judith S. Currier, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the division of infectious diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles. The first authors of 537 of the 990 abstracts that were accepted this year were women, she said.

Since its launch in 2016, a hepatitis C elimination program in Iceland has treated approximately 56% to 70% of the estimated viremic population with direct-acting antivirals, according to a recently published update.

Hepatitis C eradication by direct-acting antivirals improved carotid atherosclerosis in patients with severe fibrosis regardless of the presence of additional metabolic risk factors, according to recently published data.

Treating recipients of a kidney from a donor with HCV with direct-acting antiviral medications before and after transplantation is safe and prevents chronic HCV infection, according to findings published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The addition of ribavirin to 12 weeks of Harvoni showed little therapeutic benefit in patients undergoing retreatment for hepatitis C after failing to achieve sustained virologic response with a prior NS5A inhibitor-containing regimen, according to recently published data.

Newly published research suggests that expanding hepatitis C virus testing to everyone aged 18 years and older in the United States would likely be a cost-effective way to improve HCV outcomes.