Current treatment for chronic hepatitis C.

Treatment of chronic hepatitis C has seen phenomenal progress over the last 10 years. The short courses of interferon monotherapy that were used in the early 1990s led to sustained improvement in liver disease and durable loss of detectable virus in fewer than 10% of patients. Longer courses improved the durability of those responses slightly. The major recent advance in treatment is the addition of the nucleoside analogue ribavirin to the interferon regimen. Combination of these two drugs for 6 to 12 months results in a sustained virologic response in 30% to 40% of previously untreated patients. Long-acting pegylated interferon has just been approved by the FDA and promises to improve the ease of administration. Furthermore, when used in combination with ribavirin, pegylated interferon increases the sustained virologic response rate to more than 50%.