Affiliations 

  • 1 A Hamidah, MMed. Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine UKM, Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras 56000, Kuala Lumpur
  • 2 C R Thambidorai, FRACS. Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine UKM, Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras 56000, Kuala Lumpur
  • 3 R Jamal, MRCP. Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine UKM, Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras 56000, Kuala Lumpur
Med J Malaysia, 2005 Oct;60(4):517-9.
PMID: 16570722

Abstract

We describe a patient with HbE-beta thalassaemia and chronic hepatitis C virus infection (genotype 1a) who was treated successfully with peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin, following failure to respond to standard interferon and ribavirin therapy. She had sustained virological response for nearly 24 months after completing peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin therapy. Transfusion requirements were significantly increased during combination therapy due to ribavirin-induced haemolysis. The adverse effects of interferon were well tolerated. Combination therapy with peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin maybe a feasible treatment option for a subset of thalassaemia/HCV infected non-responders to standard interferon-based therapy.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.