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Possible Cure for Chronic Hepatitis C Infections

© Neal Rolfe Chamberlain

Hepatitis C infection is a worldwide problem. About 0.2 to 2.2 percent of the general population have been infected. Two to 4 million people in the United States have chronic hepatitis C infection with 150,000 new cases of hepatitis C virus infection per year. Chronic hepatitis C can lead to liver cirrhosis (30-40 percent of patients), liver cancer and liver failure. This disease is currently the second most common reason for liver transplantation in the United States (liver damage due to alcohol abuse is the most common).

Once a person is infected by the hepatitis C virus, they have a 70-80 percent chance of developing chronic hepatitis. People with chronic hepatitis never completely eliminate the virus from their bodies. They may go for years without any symptoms. Intravenous drug abusers (mainlining), people who receive blood or blood products before July 1992 (in the United States), and hemodialysis patients are at highest risk of being infected by the hepatitis C virus.

People with chronic hepatitis C infection can suddenly get worse and present to their physician with symptoms of hepatitis (very tired, clay colored stools, yellowing of the whites of the eyes and skin). When this happens more liver damage is occurring. If    possible, patients can be treated with interferon alpha. Interferon helps the patients body to kill off most of the virus infected cells in the liver. Unfortunately it CANNOT cure a patient. Only about 50 percent of the patients get better with this treatment.

To improve on this interferon alpha (Intron A) treatment researchers in 1998 added a drug called ribavirin (Rebetol) along with the interferon. The combination therapy did NOT cure chronic hepatitis C. However, this combination of drugs was better at lowering the amount of hepatitis C virus in a patient's blood stream than when interferon alpha is used alone. Clinical trials also demonstrated that six months after treatment 45 percent of patients treated with the combination therapy still had very low levels of virus in their blood.

Now a recent report from the Digestive Disease Week Conference 2001 indicates that a new form of interferon combined with ribavirin appears to cure at least half of the people with chronic hepatitis C infections. The new interferon is called pegylated interferon. The interferon is attached to a chemical called polyethylene glycol or PEG. Attaching interferon to PEG allows the interferon to remain in the body longer reducing the number of injections of interferon from daily injections to once per week. It has also been demonstrated that this pegylated interferon works better at eliminating the Hepatitis C virus from the patient's liver.

Basically, patients were given PEG-interferon (PEG-Intron) with ribavirin

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