Journal
WORLD JOURNAL OF GASTROENTEROLOGY
Volume 27, Issue 29, Pages 4831-4845Publisher
BAISHIDENG PUBLISHING GROUP INC
DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i29.4831
Keywords
Hepatitis B; Hepatitis C; Nucleotide analogues; Directly acting antiviral therapy; Clinical outcomes; Liver disease
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Modern antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis B and C has had positive impacts on clinical outcomes, including reducing prevalence and transmission rates, improving quality of life, lowering rates of liver decompensation and mortality, preventing progression to cirrhosis, reducing the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, and decreasing the need for liver transplantation.
Chronic infections with the hepatitis B and C viruses have significant worldwide health and economic impacts. Previous treatments for hepatitis C such as interferon and ribavirin therapy were ineffective and poorly tolerated by patients. The introduction of directly acting curative antiviral therapy for hepatitis C and the wider use of nucleos(t)ide analogues for suppression of chronic Hepatitis B infection have resulted in many positive developments. Decreasing the prevalence of hepatitis B and C have concurrently reduced transmission rates and hence, the number of new infections. Antiviral treatments have decreased the rates of liver decompensation and as a result, lowered hospitalisation and mortality rates for both chronic hepatitis B and C infection. The quality of life of chronically infected patients has also been improved significantly by modern treatment. Antiviral therapy has stopped the progression of liver disease to cirrhosis in certain patient cohorts and prevented ongoing hepatocellular damage in patients with existing cirrhosis. Longer term benefits of antiviral therapy include a reduced risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma and decreased number of patients requiring liver transplantation. This review article assesses the literature and summarises the impact of modern antiviral therapy of chronic hepatitis B and C on clinical outcomes from liver disease.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available