Reported by Lin Hui-Cin from Taipei
From last year, the NHI started providing new oral drugs for patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 or 4, as well as for hepatitis C patients with grade-3 fibrosis or compensated cirrhosis. The treatment program was expanded this year to include patients with HCV genotype 2, 5 or 6, as well as hepatitis C patients with decompensated cirrhosis. The Taipei VGH recently announced the results of the expanded treatment program based on 253 patients. It shows that the new oral drugs have been 100% effective in reducing the viral load just after 4 weeks of treatment.
Dr Huang Yi-Xiang of the Taipei VGH expressed that the median viral load of the 253 patients was over 750,000 IU/mL before the treatment. Among those 200 patients who received at least 6 weeks of the treatment of hepatitis C new drugs, 91% of them were found virus-free in the 4th week of the treatment. The remaining 9% only had traces of virus. Among those 161 patients who completed the 12 weeks treatment, 99.4% were found virus-free. The clearance rate was 100% for HCV genotypes 1 and 6, and was 98.7% for HCV genotype 2.
There are about half million people in Taiwan carrying hepatitis C virus. Dr Hou Ming-Chi of the Taipei VGH stressed that about 80% of hepatitis C patients will develop into chronic hepatitis, 20-30% will progress to cirrhosis and 2-7% become liver cancer or end-stage liver diseases. Though the vaccines against hepatitis C are not yet available, the disease can now be cured with the new drugs reimbursed by the NHI.
【2018-06-28/ Liberty Times】
