Successful lamivudine therapy for chronic hepatitis B in the family

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B virus infection is a global public health problem since it is a leading cause of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. An optimal treatment is needed to reduce mortality. Current therapies for chronic hepatitis B include standard and pegilated interferon-alfa and nucleoside and nucleotide analogies, primarily lamivudine and adefovir. Each of the therapies, however has various limitations. CASE REPORT: In this paper we presented a father and his daughter with chronic hepatitis B, successfully treated with lamivudine. CONCLUSION: In the linked cases of chronic hepatitis B, the choice of antiviral medicine in some patients could also be made on the basis of its efficacy in the persons previously treated with it, even without determining virus genotype.