Hepatitis C in a Cohort of Patients With Maintenance Therapy for Opiate Dependence - Prevalence, Severity and Outcome of Antiviral Therapy

Exclusion Criteria

• •The presence of any of the following criteria will exclude the patient from participating in part III of the study:
• •1. Pregnant women, women who plan to become pregnant, male patients whose partner wants to become pregnant, and breastfeeding women.
• •2. Previous treatment for chronic hepatitis C with an antiviral or immunomodulating agent or with an interferon or ribavirin product, whether alone or in combination.
• •3. Participation in another clinical drug trial.
• •4. Coinfection with HBV or HIV
• •5. Hemoglobin \<120 g/L for females and \<130 g/L for males.
• •6. LPK \<3,0 x 109/L
• •7. Platelets \<80 x 109/L
• •8. Creatinin clearance \<50mL/min
• •9. Any of the following diseases considered to be a dominant cause of the patients chronic liver disease:
• •* Hemochromatosis
• •* Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
• •* Wilson's disease
• •* Autoimmune hepatitis
• •* Alcoholic liver disease
• •* Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)
• •* Drug-related liver disease
• •10. Active malignant disease or suspicion or history of malignant disease within five previous years (except for adequately treated basal cell carcinoma).
• •11. Patients with organ transplants, except for corneal or hair transplant.
• •12. Poorly controlled diabetes mellitus.
• •13. Evidence of severe retinopathy or clinically relevant ophthalmological disorder in patients with diabetes mellitus or hypertension.
• •14. Poorly controlled epilepsy.
• •15. Thyroid dysfunction not adequately controlled
• •16. Decompensated cirrhosis (Child-Pugh B-C).
• •17. Treatment with immunomodulatory drugs (chronic systemic corticosteroids (equivalent to \>10 mg prednisone/day), immunosuppressive drugs, chemotherapy) and/or treatment with herbal drugs for chronic hepatitis.
• •18. Any other condition which in the opinion of the investigator would make the patient unsuitable for enrollment, or could interfere with the patient participating in and completing the study.