Author Interviews, Hepatitis - Liver Disease, Lancet, NIH / 13.01.2015
Combination Medications May Cure Hepatitis C In Six Weeks
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Anita Kohli MD
Critical Care Medicine Department
NIH Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
Clinical Research Directorate/Clinical Monitoring Research Program, Leidos Biomedical Research, National Laboratory for Cancer Research,
Frederick, MD,
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Kohli: While therapy using for 8-12 weeks of all oral directly acting antivirals (DAAs) has been shown to result in high SVR "cure" rates for hepatitis C, the optimal combination and minimum duration required for treatment of hepatitis C has not been defined. The development of the simplest, short duration regimen for hepatitis C possible with high cure rates is important given the ~180 million people infected globally.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Dr. Kohli: Combination therapy with directly acting antivirals may allow for the further shortening of treatment duration for hepatitis C. Using the right combination of DAA's therapy for as short as six-weeks may results in high rates of SVR.
(more…)