Treatment of Chronic Delta Hepatitis

Hepatitis d virus (hdv) infections remain a worldwide health problem. however, the clinical impact of these infections is often underestimated, and therapeutic options for the infections are often unexploited. gulsun et al. have addressed both these issues in the paper “treatment of chronic hepatitis d; a 9 years retrospective analysis” published in this issue of hepatitis monthly. the present study was conducted in diyarbakir, eastern turkey, where chronic hepatitis d is one of the most prevalent liver diseases. hdv causes liver failure due to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in a significant proportion of hepatitis b surface antigen (hbsag) carriers. over 8 years, the authors enrolled 46 patients with florid hepatitis d. these patients showed the typical features of hdv infections; most of them were young adult men with concomitant hepatitis b virus (hbv) infections that were positive for the antibody to hepatitis b antigen and not for the hbe antigen.