| REVIEW ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2017 | Volume
: 146
| Issue : 1 | Page : 23-33 |
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Newer direct-acting antivirals for hepatitis C virus infection: Perspectives for India
Varun Gupta, Ashish Kumar, Praveen Sharma, Anil Arora
Institute of Liver, Gastroenterology, & Pancreatico-Biliary Sciences, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, India
Correspondence Address:
Anil Arora
Institute of Liver, Gastroenterology, & Pancreatico-Biliary Sciences, Ganga Ram Institute for Postgraduate Medical Education & Research, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi 110 060
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_679_15
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Approximately three per cent of the world's population (170-200 million people) is chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and almost 500,000 people die each year (mostly in lower middle-income countries) from complications secondary to HCV infection. In India, HCV infection imposes a considerable burden of mortality, morbidity and healthcare costs. In the last two decades, the treatment of HCV has evolved from interferon (IFN)-based therapies with or without ribavirin (RBV) to pegylated-IFN (PEG-IFN) and RBV-based therapies that were better tolerated by patients. However, the introduction of oral drugs, which specifically target virus-specific proteins, has now revolutionized the treatment of chronic HCV. These agents are known as direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). These drugs have resulted in very high HCV cure rates even with reduced treatment duration and an excellent tolerability by the patients compared to PEG-IFN- and RBV-based therapies. In India, sofosbuvir (SOF), one of the most effective DAAs, has been made available at a compassionate price; thus only those DAA-based management strategies, which contain SOF are adopted in India. Here, we review different DAAs and their possible roles in different genotypes and stages of liver disease, stressing upon the role of SOF. An attempt has also been made to devise strategies using SOF for the most prevalent genotypes in our country (genotypes 3 and 1) and cirrhosis.
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