Hepatitis C News

As direct-acting antivirals become more affordable, they also become accessible to more patients with hepatitis C, without treatment delays. These powerful drugs, which were once provided only to the sickest of HCV patients, are now a treatment option for HCV cases at all stages.

For patients with hepatitis C genotype 4, treatment with ravidasvir and sofosbuvir, with or without ribavirin, was safe and effective regardless of cirrhosis or previous interferon-based treatment experience.

Treatment with direct-acting antiviral therapies, or DAAs, demonstrated similarly high rates of SVR for hepatitis C virus infection in patients with and without HIV coinfection, according to findings from a systematic review published in Hepatology.

We are witnessing history. The explosion of new drugs into the hepatitis C marketplace has been both breathtaking and transformative. But, in HCV, we have peaked. Everything that happened in HCV happened faster and more intensively than HIV but it follows the same storyline, with one exception: Drug pricing matters in HCV.

The field of infectious diseases has changed dramatically over the past 30 years. Breakthroughs in ART have extended the life spans of people living with HIV to near-normal ranges. Polio is on the verge of being eradicated globally. Curative therapies have transformed the treatment of hepatitis C. The growing threat of bacterial resistance has pushed humanity to the brink of a post-antibiotic era.

Viral hepatitis kills thousands of people each year in the United States and causes more deaths worldwide than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. Yet when experts traveled to Washington, D.C, last year to brief members of Congress about a national strategy to eliminate hepatitis B and C, they were met with a surprising lack of interest.

Patients with hepatitis C genotype 1 who achieved sustained virologic response after direct-acting antiviral treatment had significant improvement or reversal of insulin resistance, according to a recently published study.

An 8-week course of Harvoni for hepatitis C virus infection in both black and nonblack patients was a cost-effective alternative to a 12-week course, according to researchers.

Sustained virologic response after direct-acting antiviral treatment for hepatitis C significantly improved liver stiffness from baseline to end of treatment, and continued to improve liver stiffness among those with progressive fibrosis at 24 weeks posttreatment, according to recently published data.

A recently published study showed that patients with chronic hepatitis C have an increased risk for chronic kidney disease. Additionally, HCV treatment appeared to improve survival among patients with chronic HCV and patients on hemodialysis compared with untreated patients.