[Chronic hepatitis C and interferon alpha treatment]

The authors discuss some of the aspects of chronic hepatitis C infection e.g. interferon alpha treatment. They describe the current state of knowledge on HCV pathophysiology: liver pathology, immunological phenomena, autoimmunity. Attention is paused on development of hepatitis C serodiagnosis which enables patient monitoring during infection and therapy: detection of serum anti-HCV antibodies with third and fourth generation ELISA kits; the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which enables detection of viral nucleic acid (HCV-RNA). Some differences in interferon therapy in children are also described.