doiSerbia

Characteristics of acute hepatitis C

Mitrović Nikola (Clinical Center of Serbia, Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Disease, Belgrade)
Popović Nataša (Clinical Center of Serbia, Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Disease, Belgrade)
Delić Dragan (Clinical Center of Serbia, Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Disease, Belgrade + School of Medicine, Belgrade)
Stojković-Švirtlih Neda (Clinical Center of Serbia, Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Disease, Belgrade + School of Medicine, Belgrade)

Introduction. Acute hepatitis C most frequently develops after parenteral infection of hepatitis C virus. The disease often develops into chronic infection, although it can resolve spontaneously. Interferon alpha (INF-α) is used in therapy, but still without precise treatment recommendations. Objective. The aim was to present characteristics of patients with acute hepatitis C and to assess effectiveness of using recombinant INF-α in therapy. Methods. Total of 55 patients with acute hepatitis C, hospitalized at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Belgrade from January 2005 to December 2012 were enrolled in this study. Forty-one patients were under follow-up over six months for evaluation of the development of the disease into a chronic infection and effectiveness of treatment with INF-α. Results. Eighty percent of patients were male of average age 29.6±8.6 years; in 61.8% patients intravenous drug abuse was determined as risk factor. Thirty patients (54.1%) had no symptoms and 38.2% were icteric. Acute hepatitis C spontaneously resolved in 33.3% patients, while in the treated group 79.6% of patients completely recovered (p=0.006). Treatment success was 92.9% in the group of patients who started with treatment before the 45th day of disease, while in the patients who started treatment later the success rated 58.3% (p=0.037). Conclusion. Acute hepatitis C is most common in young male adults infected via injection drug abuse. The use of INF-α is effective in the treatment of the disease, and success of the treatment is more probable if treatment is started before the 45th day.

Keywords: acute hepatitis C, prognostic factors, therapy, interferon alpha