[Treatment of chronic non-A, non-B-C hepatitis]

Preventive measures, and particularly screening for anti-HCV donors, have diminished the incidence of HCV infections, however, a vaccine against the disease is necessary for an effective prevention. The most active treatment at this time, seems to be alpha-interferon, at the dosage of 3 MU during 6 months. Possibly larger doses during longer periods of time might improve response and recurrence indexes, but not sufficiently as to give indiscriminate treatment to all patients at great cost and with many adverse reactions. While waiting for better predictive factors, the most convenient therapy remains the indicated dosage during 6 months, followed by periodic assessment during 2-3 months of transaminase levels: if they remain normal, the patient should be reassessed later on, if there is a recurrence, another course of treatment should be tried; non-responders should not be treated again with single interferon; other combinations or different treatments should be tried.