New Drugs Make Hepatitis C Curable

A viral infection of the liver, Hepatitis C is one of the less commonly diagnosed of all liver diseases. This is scarcely surprising considering the fact that patients rarely present with symptoms, and this is one of the infections diagnosed primarily during routine medical examinations.

Hepatitis C is arguably one of the most serious of all viral infections of the liver considering the fact that it may persist for long periods, even for a lifetime. The fact that it may culminate in cirrhosis or even cancer of the liver is an evidence of the gravity of the disease.

Incubation period of the disease, the period of time between the infection with the virus and manifestation of symptoms ranges from 2 weeks to 6 months. Although 80% of the patients are asymptomatic, those who manifest symptoms invariably presented with fever, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting. These symptoms may be accompanied by joint pain, yellowing of urine and the whites of the eyeballs.

Statistics and transmission

The disease is spread globally. World’s Health Organization estimates that the number of people living with hepatitis C is approximately 150 million.  Annually, 350,000 people die due to the disease complications. These high numbers are, at least in part, the results of the low level of awareness about the disease. Many people don’t know that they are infected. They have no symptoms but still can pass the infection to others.

One of the most common routes involves the use of contaminated needles thus leading to the higher incidence among the drug users. Mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy is also common. In addition, sharing razors, tooth brushes and even nail clippers bears the risk of passing the infection.

Acute and chronic form of disease

Statistics indicate that only 30% of children and young adults (under 20 years of age) infected with hepatitis C develop the chronic form of the disease. On the contrary, 76% of patients over the age of 20 years become chronically infected.

 People suffering from other chronic infections such as HIV are also more vulnerable.

Treatment Of Hepatitis C Improved Dramatically In Recent Years

In instances when the disease persists, treatment with interferon for 6 months can lead to cure. However, interferon therapy is not totally reliable: some patients respond to it very well while others do not. In addition, interferon is not without side effects and sometimes these adverse effects can make the therapeutic treatment very challenging.

One of the most dangerous side effects of this therapy is the interferon alpha induced thrombocytopenia, the lowered blood platelet count.

Unpredictability of interferon therapy resulted in a need for better, more effective drugs with fewer side effects. Extensive research in this area has produced some impressive results in recent years.

Modern drugs offer cure for most cases of hepatitis C

The combination therapy is highly effective and this is corroborated by recent clinical trials. A cure rate of more than 90% has been achieved when patients are administered a combination of ribavirin, peginterferon and sofosbuvir. The latter is known to return the most promising results amongst the Direct Acting Antivirals or DAA, as they are better known. The conventional therapy for 24 – 48 weeks has now been shortened to 12 weeks when Sofosbuvir is used in combination with peginterferon and ribavirin. The drugs are relative safe and the studies indicate little or no side effects.

Combination of only two drugs, ribavirin and sofosbuvir, is used in the cases when the viral load (the amount of virus in the patient’s blood) is relatively low. In the cases of high viral load, three-drug therapy is preferred to reduce the possibility of relapse.

Chronic hepatitis C still needs better treatments

The need for less toxic and more effective anti-hepatitis C drugs has spurred the quest for identifying new compounds which would help minimize the rising mortality rates associated with chronic illness. One of the more promising breakthroughs in the pipeline is Incivek.

Incivek, or telaprevir as it is better known, works on the concept of blocking the replication of hepatitis C virus by inhibiting hepatitis C specific protein, protease NS3-4A. The drug is primarily indicated as the preferred option in post liver transplant patients with genotype I chronic hepatitis C.

While new drugs like Sofosbuvir are highly effective and possess low toxicity, the problem of complex chronic cases of hepatitis C still needs to be addressed. The treatment of patients with coexisting decompensated liver disease or cirrhosis still has to be perfected. New drugs in the pipeline might be able to address this problem and add the final nail to the coffin of hepatitis C.