[Update chronic viral hepatitis]

More than 500,000 people in Germany have chronic viral hepatitis. The interferon-based treatments formerly used in hepatitis B have been widely replaced by life-long oral medication with nucleoside or nucleotide analogues. Treatment for chronic hepatitis C has been improved substantially by the development of new and very expensive drug combinations. Up to 90% of patients can now be cured with certainty, and one to two years after successful treatment there is no relevant risk of recurrence. These individuals expect to receive insurance cover under appropriate conditions. Vaccination programmes are very efficient at decreasing the incidence of hepatitis B, but no vaccine against hepatitis C is likely to become available in the next decade.