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Liver inflammation Curing hepatitis C would be possible
According to the Deutsche Leberhilfe, around 400 million people worldwide live with hepatitis B or C. Each year, 1.4 million people die from the effects of liver inflammation. And that although hepatitis C could almost always be cured. According to experts, the infection could even be eliminated.
Many do not know about their liver inflammation
In Germany alone, about half a million people have viral hepatitis. Only one third of those affected suffers from progressive jaundice due to the typical jaundice. One-third notice flu-like symptoms such as fever, body aches, nausea, loss of appetite, headache or fatigue, and another third have no symptoms at all; they often do not know about their liver inflammation. However, chronic viral hepatitis can also lead to long-term consequences such as cirrhosis of the liver as well as liver cancer and thus end in death. It would therefore be advisable to have yourself checked for dangerous viruses.
In Germany, around half a million people suffer from viral hepatitis. However, therapies are now available with cure rates of over one hundred percent. (Image: adiruch na chiangmai / fotolia.com) Elimination of the infection would be possible
Also in the neighboring country of Austria, around 120,000 people are affected by chronic hepatitis B or C. According to the APA news agency, hepatitis C offers drug therapies with a hundred percent cure rate. Thus, even the elimination of the infection would be possible. "That would be an ambitious goal," said Viennese hepatologist Harald Hofer to the agency. Especially in hepatitis C, the situation has changed drastically. "The new therapies have been available for two and a half years. The treatment options have thus changed radically and fundamentally, "said Hofer on the occasion of the upcoming world hepatitis day on July 28.
Two different active ingredients combined
It has been reported that the new medicines to be taken in tablet form during the treatment period are highly effective. According to APA, these are active substances that directly intervene in the growth cycle of the hepatitis C pathogens: they inhibit the HCV polymerase, the HCV protease or the replication complex (NS5A) of the viruses. It is said that in therapy usually two of the different active ingredients or mechanisms of action are combined, since the high rate of replication of the pathogens otherwise would increase the risk of resistance development.
Huge rates of cure
"The cure rates are for a hepatitis C virus infection with the virus genotype 1, which accounts for two thirds of the diseases in Austria, at 95 to one hundred percent. Similar high rates of success are for hepatitis C due to genotypes 2 and 4. More difficult is the treatment - currently - in a chronic infection with the virus genotype 3 "said Hofer, Head of the Hepatitis Outpatient Clinic at the University Department of Internal Medicine III of the MedUni Vienna , According to the information, sustained success is indicated if three months after the three-month therapy, no more pathogens can be detected in the blood.
Achievements as good as in clinical trials
It is said that the new forms of treatment were applied relatively quickly in Austria. However, the initial setting must be made in a center mainly for cost reasons. The essential prerequisite for this is the presence of chronic hepatitis C as well as a documented scarring of the liver (fibrosis), whereby the status is divided into four stages. Initially, the treatment was only possible for patients in stage III and IV (fibrosis stage IV corresponds to cirrhosis of the liver), especially for cost reasons. "In the meantime, about 2,500 to 3,000 patients have been treated in Austria. We have seen that the results are about as good as in the clinical trials. In part, these were also patients with very advanced disease with cirrhosis or after liver transplants, "said Hofer. (Ad)