The summaries are free for public
use. The Chronic Liver Disease
Foundation will continue to add and
archive summaries of articles deemed
relevant to CLDF by the Board of
Trustees and its Advisors.
Abstract Details
Epidemiology, presentation, and therapeutic approaches for hepatitis D infections
Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2022 Dec 28;1-16. doi: 10.1080/14787210.2023.2159379.Online ahead of print.
1Digestive Diseases Branch, National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
2Liver Diseases Branch, National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Abstract
Introduction: Chronic Hepatitis D virus (HDV) infection remains an important global public health problem, with a changing epidemiological landscape over the past decade along with widespread implementation of hepatitis B vaccination and human migration. The landscape of HDV treatments has been changing, with therapies that have been under development for the last decade now in late stage clinical trials. The anticipated availability of these new therapies will hopefully replace the current therapies which are minimally effective.
Areas covered: This narrative review discusses the clinical course, screening and diagnosis, transmission risk factors, epidemiology, current and investigational therapies, and liver transplantation in HDV. Literature review was performed using PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov and includes relevant articles from 1977 to 2022.
Expert opinion: HDV infection is an important global public health issue with a true prevalence that is still unknown. The distribution of HDV infection has changed globally with the availability of HBV vaccination and patterns of human migration. As HDV infection is associated with accelerated disease courses and poor outcomes, the global community needs to agree upon a uniform HDV screening strategy to understand the truth of global prevalence such that new therapies can target appropriate individuals as they become available in the future.