Muhammad Saleem Qureshi, Musarrat Iqbal, Ali Zohair Nomani, Kamran Rasheed.
Time for change: conventional interferon regimes should not be the standard of care for management of Pakistani Genotype-3 in chronic hepatitis C.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;24(1):70-2.

The aim of the present study was to determine the efficacy and side effect profile of conventional interferon alpha-2b plus ribavirin for treating chronic hepatitis C genotype-3 infections in Pakistan. The study was conducted on treating 220 treatment-naïve individuals at KRL Hospital with conventional interferon given for 6 months. Both the response and side effects were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Out of total cohort, 84.92% (169 out of 199) achieved end of treatment response (ETR) while 63.31% (126 out of 199) achieved sustained virological response (SVR). Leukopenia, gastrointestinal and miscellaneous systemic complaints were the most common adverse effects. In the context of a low ETR and SVR but a similar side effect profile as that of pegylated regimes, conventional therapy needs to be replaced with peg-interferon as the treatment of choice.

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