Efficacy of Interferon-Ribavirin Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients

Objective: To determine the efficacy of interferon-ribavirin therapy for chronic viral Hepatitis C (HCV) patients. Study Design: A quasi-experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: Medical Unit-III, Ward-7, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, from August 2006 to December 2007. Methodology: Adult patients who had not received any prior anti-HCV therapy and had been infected with positive anti-HCV antibodies and detectable HCV RNA were enrolled in the study. Patients were excluded from the study if there was evidence of decompensated cirrhosis, coexistent HIV, or HBV infection, previous organ transplantation, psychiatric disease, seizure disorder, serious cardiovascular disease and other co-morbid diseases like uncontrolled Diabetes. Patients were given Interferon-alfa-2b 3 million international units three times a week sub-cutaneously and oral ribavirin at 1000-1200 mg in two to three divided doses a day for a 6-month period. At the end of treatment over all efficacy as depicted by non-detectable HCV RNA by PCR and its relation with factors of like age, gender, and serum ALT were assessed. Results: A total of 404 patients with mean age of 36.03 +/- 9.30 years, ranging from 13 to 60 years, were offered combination therapy that satisfied the inclusion criteria. Among these, females were 243 (61.1%) and males were 161 (39.9%), age range 13-60 years with mean of 36.03 years. Out of 404, 336 (83.2%) showed response to combined interferon and ribavirin therapy depicted by HCV RNA by PCR at the end of 24 weeks treatment. Age under 40 years (p < 0.001) was significantly associated with favourable response. Conclusion: Combination therapy of interferon and ribavirin in chronic hepatitis C patients has still better response rate in our set-up. Younger age and female gender were the favourable predictors.