SHOULD INTERFERON THERAPY BE INSTITUTED IN ACUTE HEPATITIS C AND NEEDLE-STICK INJURY ? A SUGGESTED THERAPEUTIC APPROACH
Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has the unique ability to self mutate its surface antigen so that the previously formed host antibodies become ineffective. By the time, body's defense mechanisms form new antibodies against the mutated antigen, the antigen mutates once again, leaving the newly-formed antibodies ineffective too. The process goes on and on, which explains as to why 80-85% of all acute hepatitis C cases progress to develop chronic infection? Currently there is no pre or post-exposure prophylaxis for HCV infection available. Thus the question arirses whether the costly interferon therapy be instituted in acute hepatitis cases or not?
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Articles published in the Journal of Dow University of Health Sciences are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/4.0/. This license permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium; provided the original work is properly cited and initial publication in this journal.