Hepatitis C is a health care problem all over the world, with 130 million patients infected the world over. The treatment is expensive and has variable results according to the genotype of the infecting virus. The first land mark in treatment is the virus clearance at the end of the treatment called End Treatment Response (ETR), but many of the patients achieving the ETR have a relapse within the next six months

The hepatitis C therapy peginterferon alfa-2b, when given as low-dose maintenance therapy, can prevent disease progression in certain patients who failed previous interferon-based hepatitis C therapies and have advanced liver disease, according to findings from a large, four-year study presented today at the 43rd annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).

Hepatitis C-related deaths in the United States increased by 123 percent from 1995 through 2004, the most recent year for which data are available. Mortality rates peaked in 2002, then declined slightly overall, while continuing to rise among people 55 to 64 years old.

HCV is a significant human pathogen, infecting more than three percent of the world’s population. The incidence of infection in the United States has been estimated to be as high as 4 million cases.

Adelaide scientists will lead a $2 million five-year project to develop new vaccines and explore better treatment options for hepatitis C sufferers.

Two new randomized controlled trials show that treating Hepatitis C (HCV) with peginterferon and ribavirin for shorter durations can yield success rates similar to those from longer treatment lengths, with cost-savings and lower risk of serious side effects.

For patients with hepatitis C, having a low blood platelet count is a frequent complication associated with advanced disease. This problem is compounded by the fact that standard antiviral treatment for the disease can further reduce platelet numbers to dangerously low levels, effectively denying these patients the treatment they urgently need.

Patients with hepatitis C treated with combination therapy of pegylated interferon and ribavirin had better outcomes when taking a weight-based dosage of ribavirin compared to a flat dosage.

In an effort to halt the spread of deadly infectious diseases now threatening to reach epidemic proportions around the world, an unprecedented research effort was launched today by IBM, The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), and the University of Chicago to discover drugs to treat and cure dengue fever, West Nile encephalitis, hepatitis C, and a host of related diseases including yellow fever.

A study of the reproductive apparatus of a model virus is bolstering the idea that broad classes of viruses - including those that cause important human diseases such as AIDS, SARS and hepatitis C - have features in common that could eventually make them vulnerable to broad-spectrum antiviral agents.

Oregon Health & Science University researchers have figured out how to turn a mouse into a factory for human liver cells that can be used to test how pharmaceuticals are metabolized.

The process by which genes are duplicated is mysterious and complex, involving a cast of characters with diverse talents and the ability to play well with others in extremely close quarters. A key player on this stage is an enzyme called a helicase.