Preliminary Report of Interferon α2b in Combination with Ribavirin for 48 Weeks for Treatment of Iranian Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C: a Quasi-Experimental Study.

The addition of ribavirin (RIBA) to the standard treatment with interferon (IFN) alpha led to an improvement in sustained virologic response (SVR) from less than 20% with IFN monotherapy to 40-45% in combination therapy. The aim of this study is to assess the therapeutic efficacy and safety of IFN alpha (PDferon) in combination with RIBA on Iranian patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). 48 naive patients aged 18 years or more with CHC were enrolled and treated with 3 mega units (MU) IFN α-2b three times a week plus 600-1000 mg RIBA per day for 48 weeks. Follow-up after therapy was 6 months. The efficacy was evident at the end of treatment and at the end of follow-up in terms of sustained normalization of alanine aminotransferase and sustained serum HCV-RNA loss. The rate of sustained biochemical and virologic response were 68.3% and 78%, respectively. 40 patients (83.3%) had at least one not serious complication and 8 patients (16.7%) didn’t have any complication. Any patient didn’t have serious complication. Although we had no control group who used standard IFN, our preliminary finding showed acceptable and promising response rate of PDferon. On the other hand, it seems that adverse events with PDferon are as like as other standard IFNs.