Treatment with peg-interferon-alpha of patients with chronic hepatitis C

Aim. To investiugate a comparative efficacy of treatment with different types of interferon. Material and methods. We studied comparative effectiveness of alpha-interferon vs pegilated interferon. In both cases alpha-interferon was administered in combination with ribavirin. 98 patients (age 16-65 years) with chronic HCV infection have undergone serological, virological, biochemical and histological tests for diagnosis and characterization of HCV infection. HCV genotyping was done by sequencing-based technology. Results. It is shown that treatment with pegilated interferon-alpha in combination with ribavirin resulted in a higher rate of sustained viral response. Adverse reactions were less frequent with peg-interferon vs conventional interferon therapy. Conclusion. Treatment with peg-interferon-alpha in combination with ribavirin is more effective than conventional interferon therapy.