Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) remains a global public health concern. There are approximately 350 million people in the world who are persistently infected with this virus [1], and they have higher risks of developing complications of the disease that can range from mild to chronic hepatitis to the more advanced disease manifestations which include cirrhosis with hepatic decompensation and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The only means currently to prevent such complications in individuals who are already chronically infected with the virus is to control viral replication and reduce liver damage with the use of interferon-alpha (IFN-α) and or nucleos(t)ide analogs (NA).
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Yuen et al. (2008) studied this question.
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