Experts have declared the end of hepatitis C, thanks to a three-month course of tablets that could see the killer blood disease eradicated from Britain. The development of Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) has been hailed as a ‘game-changer’ in the treatment of the illness.
‘This new drug gives us the opportunity to clear hepatitis C from the UK,’ says Graham Foster, professor of hepatology at Queen Mary, University of London.
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus that was first identified in 1989. Many of those affected received contaminated blood from transfusions or medical procedures prior to 1989, or by sharing needles or having tattoos. Famous sufferers include Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick, who died of a brain haemorrhage in 2007, and former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson. The virus is estimated to affect 215,000 adults in the UK, of whom more than half remain undiagnosed.
Untreated, it rots the liver and, over a period of 30 to 40 years, leads to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Death rates have been rising rapidly. In 2011 there were 381 deaths from hepatitis C, but it now kills more people than diseases related to HIV. Until now, treatments, which can last up to a year, have been fairly effective, with a 60 to 70 per cent cure rate. But they have unpleasant side effects.
Sofosbuvir, when taken in combination with the current treatment options – injections of interferon and ribavirin tablets – cures up to 90 per cent of patients in just 12 weeks, and is tolerated by almost everyone. Prof Foster says: ‘If we treat 20,000 patients every year for the next ten years, nobody will transmit the virus and it will be gone.
Hepatitis C mutates every time it copies itself, making treating it like hitting a moving target. ‘Sofosbuvir hits at the enzyme at the very heart of the virus, stopping it from mutating or becoming resistant.’
