Vitamins Assist Treatment Of Hepatitis C
Madrid,
Spain, 18 April 2002
Data
presented today at the 37th annual meeting of the European Association
for the Study of the Liver (EASL) in Madrid, Spain, showed that
physicians can offer optimal treatment for hepatitis C by tailoring
the dose of pegintron and rebetol to individual patients and
supplementing treatment with vitamins.
Management
of hepatitis C therapy with pegintron and rebetol has benefited
from the addition of the antioxidant vitamins C and E, which protect
red blood cells, according to Dr. Esteban-Mur.
"We
know from recent studies that supplementing ribavirin with the antioxidants
vitamin C and E dramatically reduces the risk of red-blood-cell
loss that may occur during treatment and result in the need to lower
a patient's ribavirin dose," said Dr. Esteban-Mur. "While preliminary,
these results are important clinically, since adding these antioxidants
to patients' regimens may enable more patients to maintain an appropriate
dose of ribavirin, thus optimising their treatment outcome."
Chronic
hepatitis C is estimated to affect nearly 12 million people in major
world markets. Chronic hepatitis C is a leading cause of chronic
liver disease and may lead to the need for a liver transplant.
Source
Schering-Plough
International, via PR Newswire.
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