Treatment of chronic hepatitis C with recombinant interferon alfa

We studied the clinical course and the effect of alfa interferon treatment in sixty-six patients of Southern Italy suffering from chronic hepatitis C virus. The patients were randomly assigned to the control group (33 patients without treatment) or to the group treated with 3MU of interferon three times a week for six months. Alanine transaminase (ALT) levels normalized in 17 of the 33 treated subjects (52%) within two months of treatment. Seven of these "responders" relapsed at the end of the six-month treatment period, but ALT normalized in these patients after resumption of interferon at the same dosage. None of the non responders on 3MU for four months showed improvement even when the dose was increased to 6MU. Our results coincide with other reports on interferon treatment in hepatitis C virus. Further studies are required to clarify whether or not higher doses at the onset of treatment increase the number of responders and decrease the frequency of relapses.