Hepatitis C: Diagnosis, Management and Treatment

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major healthcare problem affecting an estimated 180 million people globally. It remains a leading cause for liver transplantation in the USA. The primary goal of HCV treatment is cure, or eradication of the virus, which can be achieved successfully with currently approved combination therapies. Cure of HCV will prevent disease progression, reduce cirrhosis and its associated complications and decrease the risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) remain the backbone of therapy for treatment of HCV and the standard of care for genotypes other than 1. Protease inhibitors boceprevir and teleprevir are FDA-approved drugs that can dramatically increase sustained virological response when used in conjunction with PEG-IFN and RBV. Their approval has changed the standard of care in chronic HCV treatment, for genotype 1 HCV, to include PEG-IFN, RBV and either of these two protease inhibitors.