Hepatitis C-24wks pegylated interferon plus ribavirin effectively treat patients with HCV genotype 6a

Twenty-four weeks of pegylated interferon plus ribavirin effectively treat patients with HCV genotype 6a

Y. Q. Zhou1,2,X. H. Wang1,G. H. Hong1, Y. Zhu1, X. Q. Zhang1, Y. J. Hu1, Q. Mao1

Journal of Viral Hepatitis
Volume 18, Issue 8, pages 595–600, August 2011

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2893.2010.01373.x

Summary. The optimal duration of treatment and expected response rate for hepatitis C virus genotype (HCV-6)-infected patients have not been determined. Our aims were to determine the treatment outcome with pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin for HCV-6a-infected patients at Southwest Hospital and assess the association of the on-treatment virological response with the sustained virological response (SVR).

Medical records were reviewed retrospectively.
Twenty-two HCV-6a-infected patients were treated for 24 weeks, and 21 (95.5%) achieved an early virological response (EVR), 20 (90.9%) an end-of-treatment response (ETR) and 18 (81.8%) a SVR. However, only 18 of the 22 HCV-6a-infected patients were tested for serum HCV RNA level at week 4 of treatment and 15 (83.3%) achieved a rapid virological response (RVR). The rates of SVR, RVR, EVR and ETR in these patients were all similar to those in HCV-2/3 treated for 24 weeks and higher than those in HCV-1b-infected patients treated for 48 weeks. A lower relapse rate (10.0%) was seen in HCV-6a compared with HCV-2/3 (12.5%) or HCV-1b-infected patients (23.3%).

The positive predictive values of RVR and EVR for HCV-6a were comparable with those for HCV-2/3-infected patients (86.7%vs 90.9%, P = 0.683 and 85.7%vs 86.8%, P = 0.904, respectively). Of the 3 HCV-6a-infected patients who did not achieve a RVR, 2 achieved an EVR and went on to achieve a SVR. The patient who did not achieve an EVR did not achieve a SVR.

In summary, our results indicate that 24 weeks of PEG-IFN plus ribavirin can effectively treat patients with HCV-6a chronic infection.