[Standard hepatitis B therapy]

Standard treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus infection includes the use of interferon-a and antiviral nucleoside analogues, alternatively. In general, in patients with hepatic inflammatory activity, low viral titers and HBe positive wild-type infection interferon leads to a long-term seroconversion rate of about 30-50%. However in patients with advanced liver disease, in interferon non-responders and HBe minus mutants HBV carriers nucleoside analogues like lamivudine represents a new and clinically proven therapeutical option. However, the longterm outcome and the problem of the emergence of HBV polymerase gene mutants has not been completely understood.