[Evidence-based medicine: treatment of chronic hepatitis C. Liege Study Group on Viral Hepatitis]

The Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects nearly 170 million people in the world. The major characteristic of virus C is its tendency to chronicity in more than 85% of cases. Generally asymptomatic, HCV infection may also evolve with time to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. During the last few years, HCV-related end-stage cirrhosis has become the first cause of liver transplantation. In 10 years only, very significant progress has been made in the knowledge of the virus, not only in the field of diagnosis but also in therapy. Several consensus conferences taking last discoveries into account have been organized in order to promote recommendations useful for the management of hepatitis C patients. The aim of this short overview is to summarize practical recommendations that emerged recently from consensus meetings.