Retreating HCV

If you did not respond to treatment with the older non-peglated formulations of interferon, which was much less effective, you should consider retreating with pegylated interferon.

With greater access to treatment, the number of people who did not clear the virus during treatment is  increasing.

Strategies for retreating HCV, including treatment with a different formulation of interferon, called consensus interferon, or a higher dose of PEG interferon and/or  ribavirin and a longer course of treatment, have yielded disappointing results.

Some of the new oral hepatitis C drugs are being studied in people who were unsuccessfully treated for hepatitis C.

Based on the experience with HIV, it may be better to wait until there is more than one new HCV drug to add to a regimen that didn’t work before.