Manuela Curescu * , Liliana Pentesescu *
* Conf. dr. Manuela Curescu; Liliana Pentesescu – Clinica de Boli Infecțioase, Universitatea de Medicină și Farmacie “V. Babeș” Timișoara
Abstract
HCV genotype is probably the primary predictor of re onse to interferon based therapy. Since in Romania more sp than 98% of the patients are infected with genotype 1 and most of them are women aged over 40 years with a high HCV RNA viral load, they are considered ‘difficult- to- treat’ patients. Studying 104 patients with chronic hepatitis C on treatment with peginterieron plus ribavirin, achieving early virological response (EVR) was surprisingly better than the data in medical literature: 86% of the patients achieved EVR, although: 54% had a high viral load (more than 1 000 000 IU/ml),53 % were women and 91% were aged over 40 years. The answer of these results, better than in the medical literature, can rely in a better adherence to the therapy, motivated by the personal desire to become virus free, the chance to avoid liver failure, liver cancer and liver transplantation, the high costs of the therapy and personal factors, like support from family and friends.