[Drugs active against hepatitis viruses]

Chronic viral hepatitides B, C and D and their long-term consequences--cirrhosis, primary hepatic cancer--have become a worrisome public health problem. Although results with interferon alpha have been encouraging they remain modest. Many uncertainties remain concerning optimal dosage, length of treatment, the interest of repeated treatment and what might be gained by association with other antiviral molecules, particularly nucleoside analogues. These uncertainties explain the abundance of clinical studies, sometimes yielding contradictory results. Thus, further multicentric trials are required, and further fundamental research which may lead to new classes of molecules needs to be supported.