The Treatment of Chronic Viral Hepatitis

Abstract
Chronic viral hepatitis is the principal cause of chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma in the world and now ranks as the chief reason for liver transplantation in adults.13 Of the five known hepatitis viruses, three can cause persistent infection and chronic hepatitis: the hepatitis B virus (HBV),4 the hepatitis C virus (HCV),5 and the hepatitis delta (or hepatitis D) virus (HDV).6 The other two viruses, hepatitis A and hepatitis E, cause acute, self-limited disease only. Recent findings suggest that there is an additional form of viral hepatitis to which two recently discovered human viruses — the hepatitis . . .