Liz Highleyman, editor of HIVandHepatitis.com, sits down with Camilla S. Graham, M.D., M.P.H.; Kristen Marks, M.D. and Kenneth Sherman, M.D., to talk about some of the updates on hepatitis treatment from CROI 2013. In their panel, they discuss some of the promising study results seen for newer interferon-free treatments, including sofosbuvir, ledipasvir, faldaprevir and simeprevir.

In particular, one of the studies showed 100% sustained viral response rates using sofosbuvir, ledipasvir and ribavirin for both treatment-naive patients and non-responders (patients who had tried interferon in the past but had poor response).

Additionally, they discussed a study looking at faldaprevir and simeprevir in HIV/hepatitis C-coinfected patients, which showed almost identical results to what has been seen in hepatitis C-monoinfected patients. This finding suggests that perhaps HIV coinfection won't be a barrier to curing hepatitis C, especially with these newer, direct-acting antivirals.

While the study sizes were small, the findings do show hope for more effective treatment and curing of hepatitis C, without the use of interferon.

More on the three panelists convened by Liz Highleyman:

• Camilla S. Graham, M.D., M.P.H., is co-director of the Viral Hepatitis Center in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
• Kristen Marks, M.D., as an assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, where she focuses on public health and preventative medicine.
• Kenneth Sherman, M.D., is a professor of digestive diseases at the University of Cincinnati.

The video above has been cross-posted on TheBodyPRO.com with permission from our partners at the International Foundation for Alternative Research in AIDS (IFARA). Visit IFARA's website to watch more video interviews from the conference, as well as earlier meetings.