Long-term outcome improvement in patients with chronic hepatitis D treated with interferon 
Vlad Ratziu* and Thierry Poynard
Correspondence *Service d'hépato-gastroentérologie Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière Paris France
Email vratziu@teaser.fr
This article has no abstract so we have provided the first paragraph of the full text.
Treatment of chronic hepatitis D is notoriously difficult mainly because the only available drug for this disease, IFN-
, has a weak antiviral effect and is associated with a high rate of relapse.1 Biochemical and virologic responses can be achieved after 3–4 months of treatment for chronic HBV and HCV, however, the response in patients with chronic HDV can be delayed by up to 10 months, which means that a longer course of therapy is required before a patient can be classed as a non-responder.2 Nonetheless, reports of IFN-induced loss of HDV RNA and subsequent loss of HBV SURFACE ANTIGEN (HBsAg)3 reignite hope for a possible cure for this disease, albeit under very specific circumstances.4
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