Advances in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Recent advances in our understanding of the replicative mechanism of HBV, and the development of potent nucleoside analogues as clinically effective inhibitors of the HIV reverse transcriptase or herpesvirus polymerases has opened a new era in the treatment of chronic HBV infection. Single agent therapies, such as famciclovir, lamivudine or lobucavir, have had some success. There is now a logical basis for combination therapy, because of the clear need for prolonged treatment and the associated possibility that drug resistant strains will emerge with monotherapy, but the choice of agents to combine and the regimens in which they should be employed remain uncertain.Copyright 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.