Treatment of Hepatitis C with Sofosbuvir in Combination with Ribavirin and Peg Interferon; a Prospective Study Highlighting the Sustained Virological Response

Abstract

Objective: This study was intended to know the efficacy and safety of Sofobuvir in combination with Ribaviran and Peg Interferon on the basis of sustained virological response. Material and Methods: This was a prospective observational multicenter study with the use of non-probability convenient sampling technique. The duration of study was from January 2016 till July 2017. The study was conducted in lady reading hospital. The patients infected with HCV, belonging to both genders, and willing for treatment with standard interferon and Ribavirin were included in the study. The written consent was taken from all the patients with complete confidentiality of the data. HCV was diagnosed by detecting anti-HCV antibodies in serum with the help of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). PCR was done at 12th week after the treatment and was classified as Sustained Virological Response (SVR). The therapy was categorized into dual containing Sofosbuvir and Ribavirin, triple containing Sofosbuvir, Ribavirin and Peg interferon. The dose of sofosbuvir, Ribavirin and Peg Interferon was 400 mg/OD, 1200 mg/OD and 180μcg/OD respectively. All data was entered and analyzed on SPSS version 20. Results: Total 386 patients were selected for the study including 172(45.5%) males and 214(54.5%) females with the male to female ratio of 1:1. They were divided into treatment naïve and experienced group with a frequency of 211(54.6%) and 175(45.4%). The frequency of genotypes of hepatitis C was found to be 4(1.9%), 1(0.5%), 2(0.9%), 1(0.5%), 178(84.3%), 20(9.5%), 3(1.4%) and 2(3.6%) for genotypes 1a, 2, 2a, 2b, 3, 3a, 3b and UT respectively in naïve patients and similarly it was 3(1.7%), 1(0.6%), 4(3.2%), 3(1.7%), 113(64.6), 44(25.2%), 5(2.9%) and 2(1.1%) respectively in experienced group. The overall SVR achieved regardless of the dual and triple therapy in naïve patients was 200(94.7%) and in treatment experienced patients were 144(82.3%). Conclusion: The Sofosbuvir is an effective drug for the achievement of sustained virological response in combination with Ribavirin and Peg Interferon. The uniformity in the high rates of achievement of SVR in dual and triple therapy suggests a powerful efficacy of Sofosbuvir in treating and eliminating the viral load in the patients infected with Hepatitis C Virus. Keywords: Hepatitis C; Sofosbuvir; Sustained virological response