Hepatitis C – New Hope

Hepatitis C, which is a virus infection of the liver, is usually spread through contact with blood products, like accidentally being stuck with a dirty (used) needle, using IV drugs and sharing needles, or a blood transfusion (before 1992, after which screens were used). Most people who are infected with hepatitis C don't have any symptoms for years. However, it’s a chronic illness, and can lead to cirrhosis (fibrosis of the liver) and liver cancer. About 2% of Americans are infected with hepatitis C (4 times the number infected with HIV). There is no vaccine, and no proven cure, but some people benefit from drug treatment with interferon drug preparations, e.g. pegylated-interferon.

New hope for treatment for hepatitis C comes from a not-unexpected direction – a statin drug. In 2006 Japanese lab scientists found that one, fluvastatin, had greater anti-hepatitis C virus activity than the others. And now there’s news of a clinical study of 6 weeks’ fluvastatin treatment in 31 veterans with the disease. The statin reduced the viral ‘load’ significantly, when used alone, although it didn’t completely clear the virus from the body. There’s hope, however, that combined treatment of fluvastatin with peg-interferon may result in a cure. As fluvastatin has been available since 1993, much is known of its potential for side effects, so that it should be able to be approved for this use, once further clinical trials are done and found to be supportive.

Comments

[Health, Fitness, Science]

It's good to know that a lot of people are working to solve some medical issues like curing disease of Hepatitis.. Thanks for sharing