Q&A With Hannes Hagstrom From Karolinska Institutet: Using Teenage Weight As Predictor For Future Liver Disease
Q&A With Ana Maria Crissien From Scripps Green Hospital: Studying Regression In Liver Disease
Researchers say that identifying HCV transmission hotspots and gaining a more comprehensive understanding of exactly how hepatitis C virus is transmitted during times of significant spread could facilitate public health initiatives to reduce the prevalence of HCV in people who contract it through intravenous drug use.
AbbVie's hepatitis C antivirals now come with a warning. In a Q&A with MD Magazine, Barry Bernstein, MD, the company's vice president for infectious disease product development, discusses the ramifications. It's not just AbbVie, he says, more post-market reports on other companies drugs are likely coming.
More than three-quarters of intravenous drug users and Baby Boomers tested for hepatitis C were positive and unaware they were infected, according to results of a study published in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine.
While alternative and complimentary medicine make their way closer to the mainstream there are still some areas of concern with using them while treating hepatitis C. There have also been questions raised about the costs associated with using new medications to treat the disease.
As hepatitis C becomes a curable condition and fatty liver disease becomes a growing problem hepatologists are being forced to shift their focus to help a new patient population without some of the tools they have become used to having at their disposal.
Like many urban centers in the Northeastern US, Philadelphia has a chronic shortage of donor livers. But the advent of new antivirals that eradicate hepatitis C infection is starting to change that picture. In a visit to Hahnemann University Hospital, MD Magazine spoke to specialists and patients who are seeing what a difference those drugs can make. Video interviews follow the article.
You see a 48-year-old white man for his annual examination. . The patient is overweight with a body mass index (BMI) of 32. A screening chemistry panel is normal except for an aspartate aminotransferase (AST, formerly SGOT) level of 85 U/L (normal 15-50 U/L) and an alanine aminotransferase (ALT, formerly SGPT) level of 98 U/L (normal 5-50 U/L). He says you are the first doctor he has seen in more than 10 years and does not recall the last time he had a blood test.
Hepatitis C virus screening is a challenge, and strategies must be implemented to make diagnoses and treatment therapies easier, according to a JAMA study.
Despite the wealth of choices physicians have in finding drugs to treat hepatitis C infection, two challenges remain in eradicating the disease-price and lack of global screening for the virus.
A new antiviral combination is showing promise in treating patients with both chronic kidney disease and chronic hepatitis C, Texas researchers reported at the International Liver Congress in Vienna, Austria.
Japanese regulators recently approved the blockbuster hepatitis C drug Sovaldi as the first all-oral treatment regimen for genotype 2 patients in that country.
How could an effective, inexpensive hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug have been available at local pharmacies without clinicians and patients knowing it? Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have the answer.
Express Scripts has dropped Solvaldi, Harvoni, and Olysio in favor of an exclusive deal with the drug maker AbbVie Inc. to prescribe its newly approved hepatitis C drug called Viekira Pak, according to a statement from the prescription drug-benefits management company.
A generic version of Gilead Science's hepatitis C drug Sovaldi will be produced in India and sold there and in other poorer countries at what is likely to be a fraction of what it costs in the United States.
In a phase II trial, combination treatment with Gilead's simeprevir (Olysio) and Janssen's simeprevir (Sovaldi) yielded functional cure rates exceeding 90% in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) who received 12 weeks of therapy-even among difficult-to-treat patients.
An estimated 3.3% of people in the United States born between 1945 and 1965 have chronic hepatitis C infection. The increased risk of infection in this population has recently led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to recommend one-time hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing for all persons in this age cohort.
The United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is recommending Sovaldi as a cost-effective option to treat some people who have chronic hepatitis C.
Between developing its own pipeline of therapies for patients with hepatitis C and acquiring another company known for its work in this field, it looks like Merck is taking steps to be a larger player in HCV market.
An emerging epidemic of acute hepatitis C threatens the country's younger population, which experienced a significant hike in the number of cases during a recent 6-year period, according to a compound study that looked at trends of the disease among youth.
The US Food and Drug Administration partially lifted a clinical hold on a hepatitis C drug under development by Achillion Pharmaceuticals, clearing the way for a restart of the company's clinical trials of sovaprevir.
A multipronged approach built around screening, education, community outreach, and expanded access to care is critical to reducing the prevalence of hepatitis C in the African-American community.
Company is seeking FDA approval for its all-oral, interferon-free regimen for the treatment of adult patients with chronic genotype 1 hepatitis C.
New guidance from the WHO includes nine key recommendations covering screening, treatment, alcohol use assessment and counseling, and measures to prevent transmission of the virus.
SAPPHIRE II trial results show sustained virologic response in 96% of treatment-experienced patients with genotype 1 hepatitis C who were treated with interferon-free, triple-drug regimen.
Fitful nights of sleeplessness and daytime fatigue were more common among people with hepatitis C regardless of whether they had cirrhosis of the liver when compared to the healthy control group involved in a small study.
