{"id":12546,"date":"2011-05-30T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2011-05-30T11:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=12546"},"modified":"2011-05-29T01:27:57","modified_gmt":"2011-05-29T00:27:57","slug":"hepatitis-c-treatment-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/05\/hepatitis-c-treatment-breakthrough\/","title":{"rendered":"Hepatitis C Treatment Breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 15, 2011<\/em><\/p>\n

A NEW treatment for hepatitis C trialed in patients at The Alfred hospital has cut debilitating side effects and reduced treatment times, creating the potential for many more patients to be cured of the disease.<\/p>\n

About 250,000 Australians have hepatitis C but only 5 per cent choose to have the current treatment due to multiple side-effects such as psychotic episodes, depression, insomnia and muscle aches and pains.<\/p>\n

Current treatment involves weekly injections of interferon – a protein that fights the virus but causes the side effects – as well as twice-daily tablets for up to seven weeks.<\/p>\n

But researchers have found that a combination drug without interferon is even more effective, curing some patients of the disease within two weeks in a recent trial.<\/p>\n

The study, published in The Lancet<\/em> and funded by the drug company Roche, involved 88 patients from six hospitals in Australia and New Zealand, including The Alfred.<\/p>\n

The Alfred hospital’s director of gastroenterology, Associate Professor Stuart Roberts, said the success of the combination drug – which inhibits enzymes that cause the virus to multiply – was an exciting breakthrough.<\/p>\n

About 70 per cent of people with hepatitis C develop a chronic form of the virus. One-fifth of those patients develop cirrhosis – a scarring of the liver that can lead to cancer.<\/p>\n

The blood-borne virus can be spread by sharing drug-injecting equipment such as needles, through needlestick injuries in healthcare settings, or from blood transfusions before 1990 that may not have been screened for the virus.<\/p>\n

”The interferon-free treatment \u2026 will see a lot more people taking up treatment because of the lack of major side effects,” Professor Roberts said.<\/p>\n

”It may also open up opportunities to increase treatment outside specialist centres in the hospitals because there is less requirement for intensive care and monitoring of patients.<\/p>\n

”Introducing this treatment as standard practice is a few years off, but this study provides a proof of concept that it can be effective,” he said.<\/p>\n

While the current treatment produces a 50 per cent cure rate, Professor Roberts said the new treatment may be up to 80 per cent effective and would be used far more widely.<\/p>\n

”At the moment many patients elect to manage themselves conservatively and don’t undergo treatment,” he said.<\/p>\n

”Treatment, when successful, can not only arrest the progression of the disease but often it will reduce in severity as the liver remodels itself.”<\/p>\n

Hepatitis C infections have increased in Victoria, with 662 new cases reported by doctors during the second quarter of 2009 – 25 per cent more than in the same period in 2008.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theage.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A NEW treatment for hepatitis C trialed in patients at The Alfred hospital has cut debilitating side effects and reduced treatment times, creating the potential for many more patients to be cured of the disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}