Managing hepatitis C virus infection

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2366

Published 26 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2366
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2366

Clinical Review

Managing hepatitis C virus infection

Kathryn L Nash, consultant hepatologist¹, Ian Bentley, general practitioner², Gideon M Hirschfield, assistant professor of medicine³

¹ Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, Southampton, ² Hill Lane Surgery, Southampton, ³ Liver Centre, Toronto Western Hospital/Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5T 2S8, Canada

Correspondence to: G M Hirschfield gideon.hirschfield@uhn.on.ca

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Chronic hepatitis C infection is a substantialglobal health problem

Strategies to prevent infection throughprovision of safe blood products and targeting intravenous drugusers are essential

Many people are unaware that they carrythe virus and are at risk of liver disease

Complications ofliver disease related to hepatitis C infection are expectedto increase over the next 10 years

Sustained viral eradicationand prevention of disease progression is possible through antiviraltherapy

Optimal treatment is peginterferon alfa and ribavirintailored to genotype and response to therapy

New specific targetedantiviral therapies are being developed

Chronic infection with the RNA flavivirus hepatitis C is a majorcause of liver disease.¹ The Department of Health estimatesthat in the United Kingdom, chronic infection is present in200 000 people—of whom 50% are unaware that they carrythe virus—with variations in prevalence between differentgroups (0.04% in blood donors, 1% in . . . [Full text of this article]

Pegylated interferon
Ribavirin

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