Hepatitis B: new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies

Hepatitis B is a public health problem in the world. The prevalence in Morocco is 2, 7 - 3.6 percent. In adult the acute infection resolve spontaneansly in most cases. The proportion of patient who develop chronic infection is 90 percent in infants. The eight HBV genotypes [A-H] show a distinct geographic distribution. The genetype D is the most frequent in the Mediterranean area. The diagnosis is made by serology. For HBV infection diagnosis we have to check for both HBS Ag and anti HBC. Hbe Ag and HBV DNA are the most important marquers for replication. In Morocco the negative HbeAg variante is most frequent, and to check for replicative status in this case we need HBV DNA. Considerable progress has been achieved in the efficacy of therapy. Only patients with moderate or severe histologic lesions, viral replication and elevated transaminasis have to be tracted. New drags and new therapeutic strategies which are under evaluation could further improve the efficacy of therapy in the future

[Hepatitis C: diagnostis and treatment]

Hepatitis C is a health public problem worldwide. In Morocco, there are about 300.000 infected patients. Hepatitis C is the most frequent etiology of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellularcarcinoma. Considerable progress has been achieved in the diagnostis and therapy. The detection of HCV RNA is a reliable marker which is used to decide before treatment and it is a good tool in therapy evaluation. Now with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, we can treat up to 50-85% of patients, according to genotype. But many infected patients are now without treatment because the diagnostis is not done. That's why screening of patient with a high risk must be done. Education and information are a reliable tools to protect patients without infection