EXPEDIENCY OF ORAL ANTIVIRAL MEDICINE FOR MANAGEMENT OF HEPATITIS C VIRUS (HCV) INFECTION IN CHILDREN

Desired Objective: Aspire of this study is to uncover the evidences of the usefulness of antiviral medicine typically Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir for the treatment of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection in children. Study Design: Descriptive and Cross Sectional Duration and Setting: Duration for this study was nine months starting from April, 2018 to March, 2019 and study was conducted in Pediatrics department of the Mayo Hospital Lahore. Methodology: We enrolled patients, who were with diagnostics of positive Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) PCR and were the age of six to fifteen years after conducting and considering the histopathology and some examinations. The strength of the patients was 44 children having mean age of 10.52 years. Male patients were dominating with total of 28 boys and female were 16 girls. Made the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) genotyping according to the affordability of the patients. Kept all the patients on the one dose of Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir on daily bases. For the cases of cirrhosis established or INF-experienced, ribavirin added additionally. After four weeks of treatment, LFT and RFT of every patient were taken and after twelve weeks PCR was performed. Treatment was comprised on total 12 weeks and with the extension of 24 weeks for cirrhosis established. For analyzing the collected data, the software used was SPSS v-20. Results: Among all genotypes, genotype-1 was the leading type having 75 percent. 44 patients attained sustained virological response SVR-12 having 90.9 percent and rest four patients got partial virological response having 9.1 percent. Associated Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) was detected in ten patients and these patients were treated Entecavir for the whole period of treatment. All the patients attained sustained virological response SVR-12 with decrease in little of HBV while cases of INF-experienced were responsive with sustained virological response SVR-12 that were 14 patients with 31.8 percent. Conclusion: Oral antiviral (90 Sofosbuvir 400 mg or Ledipasvir 90mg) is effectively useful for the management of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection in children. Keyword: Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Sofosbuvir or Ledipasvir, Pediatrics, Genotype, Antiviral