HEPLA : a multicenter study on demographic and disease characteristics of patients with hepatitis C in Latin America

• Autor(a) principal: Viola, Luis
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Marciano, Sebastián, Colombato, Luis, Coelho, Henrique, Cheinquer, Hugo, Bugarin, Gabriela, Tatsch, Fernando Franciosi, Carvalho Filho, Roberto J., Roblero, Juan P., Varoni, Adriana, Holguin, Jaime, Torres Ibarra, Maria R., Pérez Ríos, Alma M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/230489
• topic: Hepatite C; Epidemiologia; Estudo observacional; América Latina; HCV; LATAM; Epidemiology; Observational study

Introduction and objectives: Currently, there are limited data on the epidemiology and disease characteristics of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) in Latin America. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate demographic and disease characteristics of patients with CHC in Latin America. Patients and methods: HEPLA was a non-interventional, multicenter study ofthe epidemiology and disease characteristics of patients with CHC in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. Results: Of the 817 included patients, the median age was 58 years, 53.9% were female, and 39.3% had cirrhosis. Overall, 41.2% were treatment naive, 49.8% were treatment experienced, and 8.9% were currently undergoing treatment. In patients with available data, genotype 1b accounted for 41.6% of infections, followed by genotype 1a (29.9%) and genotype 3 (11.3%). Probable mode of infection was transfusion in 46.8% of patients. Liver-related comorbidities were present in 26.4% of patients and non-liver-related comorbidities were present in 72.3%. Most patients (71.8%) received concomitant medications, with proton-pump inhibitors (20.8%) being the most commonly reported. Conclusions: At the time the HEPLA study was carried out, the data from this cross-section of patients in Latin America showed that the CHC population has variation in disease and viral characteristics, with a minority of patients receiving treatment and many patients having advanced disease. Increased awareness and access to treatment are necessary in Latin America in order to meet the goal of hepatitis C virus elimination by 2030.