Recent Management of Chronic Hepatitis C

Chronic hepatitis C is now accepted as a curable viral disease. Recently, we have seen the advent of blockbusters in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. Direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) are now used as a standard treatment of chronic hepatitis C in western countries and they will be introduced in Korea within no more than few years. The new regimens using combination of DAAs with or without pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) or ribavirin (RBV) has been proved to be more effective, easier, and more tolerable. However, high cost of drugs might be an obstacle for the future treatment. Until DAAs are widely used, combination therapy of Peg-IFN and RBV might remain in a standard therapy in most countries. In this topic, we will review the current problems of interferon-based treatment and future direction of novel treatments using DAAs in patients with chronic hepatitis C.