FOCUS ON NEW THERAPIES

AS THE VIRUS CAN only be contained in Hepatitis B and no permanent cure is available, research is being done on eliminating it from the infected liver cell. The aim is to develop drugs that can act against the virus at the molecular level, says Dr Kulkarni. It will take a long time, though, maybe a decade or more, for such drugs to hit the market. Research is also on to develop a vaccine for Hepatitis E. Drugs are already available for Hepatitis C and the focus now is on further refinement. At the moment, for all hepatitis alphabets, the watchwords are better hygiene and sanitation.