Hepatitis B, a French team brings good news on the front of this chronic disease …
Yes, good news! The damage to the liver caused by the hepatitis B virus may be resolved! This has just been demonstrated by Professor Patrick Marcellin’s team at Beaujon hospital in Clichy, which coordinated a study on 500 chronic patients treated in several countries with a drug capable of blocking the virus. She noticed that after 5 years, liver damage stopped in 96% of patients. And even better, in three quarters of cases, the lesions are resolved, in other words their cirrhosis decreases. And this is important news because until now the doctors considered that a constituted cirrhosis could not improve….
Does that mean these people are healed?
Not yet, they are considered to be in remission, in other words the viral load is checked, but the virus is still present. They therefore cannot do without treatment. The results of this study are only one step towards a cure …
In fact, it is not known what happens if the treatment is stopped?
By stopping treatment, the infection may get worse. And relapses can be severe according to specialists. For the moment, the only cases where treatment can be interrupted is when the viral load is so low that the patient no longer presents Ag HBS antigens in the serum … But this situation is rare. That said, the researchers are not giving up, they have launched new studies that combine several treatments to reduce the viral load in the body of patients as much as possible.
In France, is this chronic disease common?
Experts estimate that nearly 300,000 people have chronic hepatitis B … But we know that the population is reluctant to be screened. And the French are not very aware of the modes of contamination of this hepatitis B virus. Moreover, a survey published by the Institute for Public Health Surveillance in July 2012 showed that one in three people does not know not that the hepatitis B virus can be transmitted through unprotected sex. However, you should know that the hepatitis B virus is 100 times more contagious than HIV …
It is therefore important to get tested in case of doubt …
And the promising results of this study should remove any hesitation. In addition, I remind you that there is an effective vaccination to prevent the risks of possible contamination, it may be the time to update your vaccination record …
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