Treatment of chronic hepatitis B in China

Telbivudine versus lamivudine in Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B: Results at 1 year of a randomized, double-blind trial

“…1 More than one-third of the world's 350 to 400 million chronic HBV carriers live in China, where the average prevalence of chronic HBV infection is over 9%. [2][3][4] Among patients of Chinese ancestry, chronic HBV infection leads to a striking increase in the life-time risk of cirrhosis, hepatic decompensation, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver-related premature mortality. 5,6 It is estimated that over 500,000 Chinese die annually from endstage hepatitis B complications.…”

“…The goals of the present study were (1) to gain additional phase III data on telbivudine in Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B, as required by Chinese regulatory guidelines; (2) to compare telbivudine and lamivudine in the relatively homogeneous Chinese patient population, in which the potentially confounding effects of ethnic variation could be minimized; and (3) to assess direct antiviral effect, reflected by serum HBV DNA reduction, as the primary efficacy measure, in contrast to the composite serologic efficacy measure used in the international GLOBE trial. The primary results at 1 year from this study are described in this report.…”

Effect of seasonal variation on the clinical course of chronic hepatitis B

“…TCM is widely used and has been proven effective in clinical trials for treating chronic hepatitis B in China; [45][46][47] TCM costs less and has few side effects, and is amenable to long-term observation. Approximately 80% of our chronic hepatitis B patients with ALT levels ≥2.0 × ULN received at least 6 months of TCM therapy during follow-up.…”

Consensus statements on the prevention and management of hepatitis B and hepatitis C in the Asia–Pacific region1

“…Traditional Chinese medicines or other herbal medicines have been reported as having some therapeutic potential in the treatment of chronic HBV infection, but require further larger scale, randomized control trials to confirm efficacy. 29,30 …”