What is treatment for viral hepatitis? Leading Boston-based expert in liver disease gives therapy update for viral Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. Viral hepatitis therapy is focused on prevention. Newly developed medications can achieve virus eradication. What is treatment for viral hepatitis? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Video interview with leading expert in hepatitis Harvard Medical School. Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. What are types of Viral Hepatitis: Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis E. Medical second opinion helps to make sure diagnosis of viral hepatitis is correct and complete. Medical second opinion also helps to choose the best treatment for viral hepatitis. Patients should know what is treatment for viral hepatitis by modern methods. Viral hepatitis more disease treatment depends on the type of virus that causes hepatitis. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. Acute viral hepatitis treatment need to begin as soon as diagnosis is made. Vaccination is effective for Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B. There is vaccine in development for Hepatitis C. New oral hepatitis C medications: sofosbuvir, ledipasvir, telaprevir / Incivek, sofosbuvir / Sovaldi ombitasvir, paritaprevir, ritonavir combination is called Viekira Pak; boceprevir / Victrelis, Harvoni simeprevir / Olysio). What is treatment for viral hepatitis B and for other types of viral hepatitis? Hepatitis B therapy is interferon based. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Key medications are pegylated interferon alfa (PEG-IFN-a), entecavir (ETV), tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF)are the first-line medications to treat Hepatitis B. What is the treatment for viral hepatitis? Hepatitis B treatment. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Let's start with inflammation of the liver, hepatitis. There are new breakthrough effective medications to treat some forms of hepatitis (Hepatitis C). There are vaccines for other types of hepatitis (Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B). Dr. Simon Robson, MD. But many patients around the world do not know that they have a serious liver disease. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. What are the most common forms of hepatitis? What is the current progress in diagnostics and treatment of hepatitis? Dr. Simon Robson, MD. Harvard Medical School. As you pointed out, we have very effective vaccines. They can prevent the infection and development of chronic hepatitis B. These are very effective vaccines against Hepatitis B. Vaccines to prevent acute Hepatitis A are also being developed. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. There are also vaccines in development against other types of hepatitis, including Hepatitis E. Hepatitis E is a waterborne disease. It is similar to Hepatitis A. Hepatitis E is found in South America and India. We have very effective medications this have been developed over the last decade to treat hepatitis B. Treatment of hepatitis B is very similar to treatment for HIV patients. Patients take these medications long-term. The replication of the Hepatitis B virus is suppressed as long as patients keep taking the medication. Patients with Hepatitis B can remodel their livers. They can recover liver structure and function. Patients who have established fibrosis and scarring of the liver can improve dramatically with suppression of hepatitis B. Recent development of non interferon-based treatments for hepatitis C is very exciting. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. I first came to the United States over two decades ago. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. Then situation with Hepatitis C was very different. We started by recognizing that Hepatitis C is an important disease. We then moved to Hepatitis C treatment by interferons. We used other very toxic immunomodulatory medications. These first immunomodulatory treatments of Hepatitis C targeted the immune response to the virus. Now we have direct acting antivirals. They are very effective in treatment of Hepatitis C. We first were treating patients with Hepatitis C for 48 weeks with very toxic therapies. Patients had a lot of side effects from first Hepatitis C medications. Only a minority of patients completed the course of treatment. Only 50% of those patients actually responded to treatment with immunomodulatory medications. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. Now we can adjust new medications to treat Hepatitis C. There is only one pill to take each day. We treat patients with Hepatitis C for only 8 to 12 weeks. We can cure 90% to 95% of all patients with Hepatitis C. The main problem we have now is economic. These new effective oral medications to treat Hepatitis Care very expensive. Viral hepatitis remains an important medical problem worldwide. We have to extend immunization protocols for hepatitis A and hepatitis B. We also need to develop vaccines to prevent hepatitis C. It is impossible to treat the whole world at the current price of Hepatitis C medications. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Clearly the costs of new Hepatitis C treatment will decrease. But right now the cost of new Hepatitis C treatment is $1,240 per one tablet. Patient needs to take one tablet each day for 8 to 12 weeks. New treatments for Hepatitis C are very expensive. Dr. Simon Robson, MD. What is treatment for viral hepatitis? Video interview with leading expert in liver disease. New treatments for viral hepatitis A, B, C. Progress on vaccination.