New Hepatitis C Treatment Shortens Treatment Time

Posted by Uni Blake May 15, 2009

Hepatitis C is caused by the HCV virus. It is a chronic condition that sometimes ends with the patient suffering from liver cirrhosis and in some cases liver cancer. The disease is spread by contact with an infected person’s blood. People get infected by sharing needles with a person carrying the infection in their blood. There is no vaccine to prevent this disease. Most common treatment is the combination of pegylated interferon and the anti-viral drug ribavirin. Treatment normally takes 48 weeks and not all patients are cured. However, a recent study showed that accentuating the normal treatment with telaprevir another anti-viral drug can reduce the treatment time to 24 weeks.

(McHutchison et al., “Telaprevir with Peginterferon and Ribavirin for Chronic HCV Genotype 1 Infection” NEJM Vol. 360:1827-1838 April 30, 2009)