Increasing Awareness and Treatment Competencies For Practicing Clinicians
Hepatitis Delta: Increasing Awareness and Treatment Competencies For Practicing Clinicians
- HDV is underdiagnosed but prevalent in HBV infected patients
- HDV has poor testing frequency and very low linkage to care
- All HBsAg+ patients should be tested for HDV by total antibody testing and linked or reflexed to HDV RNA quant by PCR
- HDV is in need of rapid test or POC tests on the global market
- Best current treatment is INF with MVR rate of 20%, this does not define cure of HDV
- Major need for new therapies to result in at least a 2 log reduction of viral load = reset of disease activity
- New HDV therapies will have MVR of 40% with additional 20% with ”reset” of virus levels by 2 logs
- Primary care clinicians can play a vital role in diagnosis and treatment