Hepatitis treatment

Chronic hepatitis B may be treated with peginterferon-α-2a, which is injected subcutaneously once weekly. [Note: Interferon-α-2b injected intramuscularly or subcutaneously three times weekly is also useful in the treatment of hepatitis B, but peginteferon-α-2a has similar or slightly better efficacy.] Oral therapy includes lamivudine, adefovir, entecavir, tenofovir, or telbivudine. Combination therapy of an interferon plus lamivudine is no more effective than monotherapy with lamivudine. Patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) who are co-infected with hepatitis B are usually poor responders to interferon therapy. In the treatment of chronic hepatitis C, the preferred treatment is the combination of peginterferon-α-2a or peginterferon-α-2b plus ribavirin, which is more effective than the combination of standard interferons and ribavirin.