Safety and Efficacy of Direct-Acting Antivirals for Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C in Population Aged 60 Years and Older in Upper Egypt

Abstract

Background: Egypt is the country of highest prevalence of chronic HCV infection. Elderly infected individuals are more liable than younger infected individuals to have increased course of infection, increased risk of disease progression, and consequently increased incidence of occurrence of advanced liver disease. Objectives: The current study aimed to assess the safety and the efficacy of the treatment with direct acting antivirals based regimens in hepatitis C virus infected individuals aged ≥60 years. Patients and methods: three hundred elderly individuals with chronic hepatitis C virus infection recurred from Unit of Hepatic Viruses Treatment, Qena university hospital, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt. Child–Pugh grade A, were involved in this study, treated with DAAs for twelve weeks, either dual therapy or triple therapy(with addition of ribavirin), according to criteria of the national committee for chronic viral hepatitis. Results: The Overall CHC infected individuals mean ages were 69.9 ± 5.3 years, 71.7% were male and 18.3% were females. The sustained virological response (SVR) rate at 12 weeks post-treatment was 96% (288/300). There were statistically significant correlations between virological failure and degree of fibrosis, rates of sustained virological response were 98.8% in patients with no liver cirrhosis and 84.5 % in patients with established liver cirrhosis, there was statistically significant difference as regard the rate of virological response between patients with and without cirrhosis (P < 0.001). Conclusion: DAAs treatment achieved 12weeks-sustained virological response in 96% of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus-infection with high safety profile. Liver Cirrhosis has negative impact on 12weeks-SVR.

Keywords

• direct-acting anti-virus; svr; hcv