Hepatitis B Treatment

Treatment

For treating hepatitis B there are 2 drugs approved: interferon and lamivudine.

The therapy with interferon lasts from 6 to 12 months and it has many side effects. The most common are flu-like symptoms, fatigue, headache, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, depression, and hair thinning (those will appear in over 35% cases). It also decreases the production of white blood cells and platelets by depressing the bone marrow.

The therapy with lamivudine lasts for at least one year and it could have lower effects than the therapy with interferon. The side effects are not so aggressive as the ones found in the therapy with interferon.

Not every person infected with the hepatitis B virus is eligible for those kinds of treatments. Only persons with active liver disease should be considered eligible for the treatment. The active liver disease is usually characterized by increased liver enzymes, hepatitis B virus detected in blood and damage shown on liver biopsy if performed. The inactive liver disease is characterized by the absence of liver damage but the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg).

The aim of the treatment is to prevent the consequences which can be life threatening of a long-standing infection with hepatitis B virus. Only a very small proportion of treated patients clear HBsAg - which is the equivalent of curing. The intention of treatment is to decrease the replication of the hepatitis B virus. That is checked by doing some blood tests on hepatitis B viral DNA (HBV DNA) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg). A smaller number of copies of the virus in the blood implies a smaller damage to the liver.

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