— Christine M. Kukka, Project Manager, HBV Advocate
A small study of 20 patients treated with an immune-suppressing drug
finds the treatment did not reactivate the liver infection in the
patients who had been infected with HBV but had cleared HBsAg, but not
developed surface antibodies.
On average, about 5% of people who have had
hepatitis B will experience a return of infection (including increased
viral load or rising ALT levels) after treatment with a drug that
suppresses the immune system.
In this study, after 40 months of treatment with a
tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (which suppresses the immune system to
stop skin inflammation), none of the 20 patients had signs of a
reactivated infection.
"Combining our data with data from other studies
of psoriasis patients with a past history of HBV infection who were
treated..., we calculated a maximum estimated risk of HBV reactivation
for a mean follow-up period of 30 months of 2.7 reactivations per 100
patients," they wrote in the March issue of the Spanish medical journal Actas Dermo-sifiliografucas.
While treatment appeared not to reactivate HBV
infection among their study participants, researchers cautioned that it
was still important to screen patients for their hepatitis B status
and viral load before starting treatment.
Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25776200
http://www.hbvadvocate.org/news/HBJ12.4.htm
Labels: HBV Reactivation, psoriasis treatment