New drug therapy cures hepatitis C in patients with HIV: Study

Scientists have revealed that a combination drug therapy cures chronic hepatitis C in the majority of patients co-infected with both HIV and hepatitis C.

In a phase III clinical trial, doctors administered 'sofosbuvir' and 'ribavirin' to a total of 223 HIV-1 patients chronically co-infected with hepatitis C (genotypes 1, 2 or 3) either for 12 weeks (for treatment-naive patients with genotype 2 or 3) or for 24 weeks (for treatment-naive patents with genotype 1 or treatment-experienced patents with genotype 2 or 3).

It was found that for treatment-naive patients, 76 percent with genotype 1, 88 percent with genotype 2 and 67 percent with genotype 3 were cured.

Researchers said that have always termed this to be 'sustained virologic response but they now know that means hepatitis C has been cured.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.