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Anastasia Spanoudaki,1,* Nikolaos Papadopoulos,2,* Eleni-Myrto Trifylli,2 Evangelos Koustas,2 Sofia Vasileiadi,1 Melanie Deutsch1 1 2nd Academic Department of Internal Medicine, Hippokration General Hospital of Athens, Medical School of National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece; 2 1st Department of Internal Medicine, 417 Army Share Fund Hospital, Athens, Greece*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Nikolaos Papadopoulos, 1st Department of Internal Medicine, 417 Army Share Fund Hospital, Ravine 14-16 str, Athens, 11521, Greece, Tel +302117100671, Email nipapmed@gmail.comAbstract: Haemophilia is a rare, hereditary bleeding disorder. Clotting factor concentrates were a revolutionary treatment which changed the life of people with haemophilia. However, early generation of clotting factor concentrates, without viral inactivation procedures in the manufacturing process, led to an increased risk of transmission of blood-borne viral infections, mainly due to hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus. As only 20% of HCV-infected patients clear the infection naturally, chronic HCV infection constitutes a serious health problem and a major cause of chronic liver disease in this group of patients. Fortunately, the use of viral inactivation procedures in the plasma-derived factor concentrates manufacturing process and the availability of alternative treatment options, led to a significant reduction of transfusion-associated viral infections. The advent of multiple, orally administrated, highly effective direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) is changing the natural history of HCV infection in patients with haemophilia as these drugs have an excellent safety profile and achieve very high sustained virological response rates, similar to the general population. Eradication of HCV-infection in patients with haemophilia is feasible via micro-elimination projects.Keywords: hepatitis C virus, haemophilia, direct-acting antivirals, micro-elimination projects |
