Biological aspects regarding the management of chronic viral hepatitis C in children

Hepatitis C virus infection has reached epidemic proportions worldwide and there is increased interest in its occurrence in children. While there are certain controversies regarding the mechanisms and management of chronic viral hepatitis C in children, in the present study we were interested in comparing, from a biological perspective, the types of responses to two different management options in chronic viral hepatitis C in children: monotherapy with pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and interferon associated with ribavirin, for a period of one year. The obtained results showed that in almost 49% of the patients that received monotherapy treatment a sustained virological response was present. For the patients that received combined IFN-ribavirin therapy for one year, the sustained virological response was present in almost 50% of them. These findings show that the combination of interferon and ribavirin treatment was effective in children with chronic hepatitis C, however, further studies are needed to identify the optimum management of this pediatric population