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Article: African Americans respond poorly to hepatitis C treatment.(Relevant Research)
- Article from:
- Black Issues in Higher Education
- Article date:
- July 1, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Cox, Matthews & Associates. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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DURHAM, N.C.
African Americans have a significantly lower response rate to treatment for chronic hepatitis C than non-Hispanic Whites, according to a new study led by Duke University Medical Center researchers.
Some African Americans--19 percent--did respond to the drug combination of peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin. But in non-Hispanic Whites with the same disease, the hepatitis C genotype 1 virus strain, 52 percent had no evidence of the virus in their blood six months after completing the drug therapy--one of the highest response rates ever reported for this therapy. The study showed the difference in infection rates between the two groups is not ...