Treatment of hepatitis C. The 2002 French consensus

Chronic infection by hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects 170 million people worldwide.In European countries the overall prevalence in adults ranges from 1% to 2%, 1 2 and more than five million Europeans are thus infected.The high prevalence of HCV infection, together with the risk of severe complications which include cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma, 3 4 makes this a major public health problem.HCV was discovered more than 10 years ago, and considerable progress has since been made in our knowledge of the virus, its modes of transmission, the natural history of the infection, and also patient management, including specific therapy.Several consensus conferences have been organised in the last five years, in particular the French Association for the Study of the Liver in January