The Very Good News on Hepatitis C Research

如果你被诊断为丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）20年前，你前进的道路充满了不确定性。但是在过去的十年中，新一代药物称为直接作用的抗病毒药物（的DAA）彻底改变了HCV治疗。这些药物已被证明能够在患者的90％以上固化感染。现在，新的研究表明，这些药物是有效的，甚至难以治疗组，如患有晚期器官损伤之一，在年幼的孩子。

These days, virtually everyone with hepatitis C can be effectively treated with one of the drugs available on the market. No longer solely the domain of specialists, there is a bigger push for primary care doctors and non-specialists to start prescribing meds to treat HCV to make it easier for patients to get help and expedite their ability to begin treatment. “There are an estimated 800,000 people in the U.S. that could be diagnosed but have not seen a specialist.” says Paul J Pockros, M.D., director of clinical research at Scripps Clinic in San Diego. “We’ve identified about only half the infections in the United States.”

同时，尽管公共服务公告和日益增长的病毒的认识，我们一直在情况下稳步上扬，在过去的十年中，可能是由于该国的鸦片流行。它强调一个仍然迫切需要找到一种疫苗，以防止在首位新的感染。科学家们正在探索这一点，和丙型肝炎的治疗等方面，在全国和世界的研究实验室。看看在抗HCV斗争中最新的医疗创新。

Hep C Meds Expand Their Reach

首先，好消息：研究表明，丙型肝炎的治疗是能治病，绝大多数谁把他们的人。初步研究，但是，并没有包括某些群体被认为是并发症，如患有晚期肝病（被称为肝硬化）的风险较高，或在那些严重的副作用，比如孩子的危险。这不断变化的，这要归功于新的科学表明现有的一些药物是安全和有效的难以治疗的患者。

Within the past year, several drugs have been approved to treat HCV in high-risk groups, says Dr. Pockros. In September 2019, the FDA approved the drug Mavyret for patients with or without cirrhosis (but not decompensated liver disease), for an abbreviated 8-week course of treatment. Two months later, the FDA approved the drug Epclusa to treat patients with end-stage renal failure. And in March 2020, Epclusa was also approved for use in children with hepatitis C who age 6 or older, or weigh more than 37 pounds.

What is means for you: If you are in a higher-risk population, or your HCV has advanced to the stage of liver damage, treatments that previously may not have been available to you are now an option—and the odds of them still working effectively is high.

探寻丙型肝炎疫苗

虽然巨大的进步已经在治疗前做，找到一个疫苗，以防止在首位HCV已被证明更加难以捉摸。这是一个重要的一块抹HCV出良好的困惑，因为不像某些病毒向您授予豁免权，一旦你被暴露，丙肝不会这样的。

“目前的治疗方法不能防止再感染，”安德烈考克斯，医学博士，博士，医学约翰霍普金斯大学医学院在巴尔的摩医学教授和扬声器，在2020年的会议上逆转录病毒和机会性感染（CROI）说。换句话说，你可以得到健康，然后再拿到丙肝，这解释了为什么感染在美国的速率比治愈率较高。

As for where we stand on a vaccine, right now, there are three vaccines that have advanced beyond the laboratory and are being studied in humans. The furthest along, a collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and the United States National Institutes of Health, is slated to show results “in just a few months,” says Cox.

如果它的工作原理，或如果任何三个节目的承诺-这将是对那些治疗HEP C.因为虽然存在针对其他肝炎毒株，如甲型和乙型肝炎的疫苗，将C株是更复杂的一个巨大的进步。“其中一个和C型肝炎的挑战是它的全球多样性，”考克斯说，注意到有病毒的8种基因型，这意味着你要么需要多个排列的疫苗是有效的，或单一的疫苗需要接种对八种不同版本病毒的。

Focused on the Future

Although the hepatitis C vaccine pipeline is thin, Cox hasn’t given up hope that one day an effective vaccine can be given to all patients to protect them from this deadly virus. “An HCV vaccine would be a total game-changer for our public health response,” says Lauren Canary, director of the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, an advocacy organization in Washington, DC. “But as we have learned from our experience with the hepatitis B vaccine, which only has 25% uptake among adults in the U.S., we would still need to invest in public health programs to raise awareness and get the vaccine to those most at risk.”

In the meantime, if you or someone you love has been diagnosed with HCV, know that a robust treatment lineup can help you get healthy in a matter of weeks to months. Even if your condition has advanced to the stage of liver damage, you can regain much of your health simply by following the medication protocol outlined by your doctor. And the easiest way to avoid reinfection is to steer clear of the activities that likely caused the condition in the first place. That means no unprotected sex, and no recreational drug use with shared needles. HCV is one disease where you are truly in control of your destiny.