Do African Americans React Worse To Hepatitis C Treatment?

One of the great mysteries of disease is why the same illness so often affects one group of people differently then another group. This is just as true of the Hepatitis C virus as it is of so many others. Hepatitis C affects the African American population in the United States worse the Caucasian, Hispanic or Asian populations. Why this is this way is unknown but recent studies continue to show that there are startling differences.

Interferon is the most commonly, and best, used drug to fight the Hepatitis C virus. A recent study was conducted to compare success rates amongst various racial groups. The tests were done after the patients had completed their first round of treatment. In the study group the viral loads became negative, that means there was no longer enough virus in the blood to be detectable, in forty percent of Asian patients, thirty three percent of Caucasian patients, twenty eight percent of the Hispanic patients but only a mere five percent of the African American patients. Doctors and scientists alike do not understand this huge discrepancy. Another study showed that Natives of Alaska had a forty five percent success rate. That leaves open a big question; why do African Americans fair so poorly when it comes their reaction to the drug therapy for the Hepatitis C virus?

Of the nearly four million people in the Untied States who are infected with the Hepatitis C virus eight hundred and eight thousand are African Americans. That is twenty two percent of those diagnosed. Of those more are men. They are more likely to be infected with type one, which is the more common amongst all populations. It is also the hardest to treat. But, for reasons that are still being studied they are much more resistant to the treatments currently being used. African Americans get very little benefits from an Interferon therapy program. They must use both Interferon and Ribavirin in conjunction with one another for treatments to be of benefit. They are also more likely to contract cancer of the liver then their non-African American counterparts.

In another study, which matched carefully the doses of all participants to be certain there were no discrepancies, it had similar results. Twenty six percent of the African American patients showed a decrease in viral loads as opposed to the thirty nine percent of the Caucasians who showed improvement. Then they looked at studies where fifty two percent of Caucasians improved with only nineteen percent of the African Americans having lower viral loads. The researchers compared everything from weight, age and other medical conditions but they still have no answers to this continuing discrepancy.

Some researchers believe that at this point the treatment should be discounted. If the results are not great why should treatment continue? Others say that if the results are poor it is still a better idea to do a second round of drug therapy to try to give the patient the best possible opportunity for improved health.