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Prevalence of HCV infection among young Egyptian generations had markedly decline, indicating the start of successful control of HCV infection.

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Background and Study Aims: Effect of peginterferon and ribavirin treatment on chronic hepatitis C virus infection has been early established. However, predictors of treatment success need more elucidation. The present study is directed to estimate the importance of rapid virological response, and other host and viral factors in naïve Egyptian patients treated with 48 weeks of pegylated interferon and ribavirin. Patients and Methods: A total of 111 naïve Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C genotype 4 were randomly assigned to a treatment regimen consisting of either peginterferon-alpha-2a (180 μg/week) or peginterferon-alpha-2b (1.5 μg/Kg/week) plus oral ribavirin (10.6 mg/Kg/day). This treatment was given for 48 weeks with a 24-week follow-up. The endpoint was sustained virological response. Results: Overall, sustained virological response was achieved by 85 (70.2%) patients, while 26 (21.5%) patients relapsed. Rapid virological response occurred in 95 patients where 77 (84.6%) of them attained SVR and 14 (15.4%) of them relapsed (P<0.001). Concerning host and viral factors, age, gender and pretreatment viral load, they all did not influence the outcome of therapy. On the other hand, higher liver fibrosis stage according to Metavir score (F3) significantly modified the sustained virological response compared to stage F1 with an Odds ratio 5.9 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.1-31.0) and compared to F2 with an Odds ratio 7.2 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.3-40.9). Conclusion: Rapid virological response is an independent factor that influences the sustained virological response. Besides, low pretreatment fibrosis stage is a predictor of sustained virological response.