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New treatment developed for people suffering with Hepatitis C


May 19, 2014

Dr. Curtis Cooper co-authored a paper recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine that evaluated a ground-breaking treatment for people who suffer from Hepatitis C, an infectious disease that primarily targets the liver. The study showed that a 12-week treatment using a combination of antiviral medicines provided Hepatitis C cure rates of between 97 and 100 per cent, depending on the strain of the virus. In addition, the therapy did not use interferon, a protein that helps trigger the protective defenses of the immune system. Previous therapies required treatment for at least twice as long – 24 to 48 weeks – and had lower cure rates of 70%. Read more in the paper.

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The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) is the research arm of The Ottawa Hospital and is an affiliated institute of the University of Ottawa, closely associated with the university’s Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences. OHRI includes more than 1,700 scientists, clinical investigators, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff conducting research to improve the understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human disease.

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Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
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