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According to a trial study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers have found that a combination drug therapy is effective in treating chronic Hepatitis C in majority of the patients infected with HIV. This study can transform the lives of patients infected with the dreadful HIV and Hepatitis C, which is one of the leading cause of death in the HIV positive co-infected patients.
Mark Sulkowski, medical director of the Johns Hopkins Infectious Disease Centre for Viral Hepatitis said, 'Due to the poor tolerance of the patients to the previous treatment standards available for Hepatitis C, patients infected with both the diseases (co-infection patients) were quite difficult to treat.' (Read: Coming soon vaccines for HIV and Hepatitis C!)
Now, the data from a Phase III clinical trial have been incorporated into the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) approval of the new drug called sofosbuvir. 'The treatment with a new all-oral regimen - sofosbuvir and ribavirin - is now considered on-label,' researchers reported. For the trial, doctors administered sofosbuvir and ribavirin to a total of 223 HIV-1 patients chronically co-infected with Hepatitis C either for 12 weeks.(Read: Coming soon A vaginal gel that can prevent HIV?)
Twelve weeks after the treatment ended, researchers tested patients again for Hepatitis C infection to determine if the treatment was effective. They found that 76 percent patients with genotype 1, 88 percent with genotype 2 and 67 percent with genotype 3 were cured. 'We have always termed this to be 'sustained virologic response but we now know that means hepatitis C has been cured,' Sulkowski noted. (Read: Coming soon a drug that protects people from HIV infections for three months!)
What is HIV/AIDS?
HIV/AIDS is a disease that affects the human immune system. AIDS is the final stage of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. If an HIV positive person is left untreated, his/her condition deteriorates into full-blown AIDS where the immune system stops working. Thus the immune system is unable to protect the person from diseases or infections. The virus can be transmitted from an HIV positive person through the exchange of body fluids. This can happen through sexual contact, blood transfusion, needles or from a mother to child during pregnancy. Though there is no cure yet, antiretroviral treatment has proven to be very effective. (Read: HIV/AIDS Causes, Symptoms, Tests, Treatment & More)
What isHepatitis C (HCV)?
Hepatitis C, also known as HCV is mostly also transmitted through exposure to infective blood. This may happen through transfusions of HCV-contaminated blood and blood products, contaminated injections during medical procedures, and through injection drug use. Sexual transmission is also possible, but is much less common. There is no vaccine for HCV. Know more about Hepatitis C causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention
With inputs from IANS
Image Source: Getty Images
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