Prevalence of flu-like syndrome among chronic hepatitis c infected patients treated with the first line combination therapy (pegylated interferon α-2a and ribavirin)

Flu-like symptoms usually occur during the first weeks of treatment with administration of pegylated interferon α-2a and severity declines thereafter. These symptoms include fever, chills, headache, arthralgia, and myalgia. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence or frequency of this flu-like syndrome occurrences among chronic HCV-infected patients treated with the combination of pegylated interferon α-2a and ribavirin briefly after starting treatment as a practical tool for knowing the severity and how commonly are the incidence of these symptoms and comparing its occurrence to those patients who received a pretreatment with a suitable therapy. For this purpose, fifty chronic HCV-genotype one infected patients were included in this study. Each one of them treated with a combination of 180 μg pegylated interferon α-2a once weekly by subcutaneous injection and different doses of oral Ribavirin. The patients were divided into two groups; the first group consisted of 25 patients and only received the recommended first line combination therapy. The second group, which consisted of 25 patients, in addition to the recommended first-line combination therapy, they received acetaminophen 600 mg intramuscular injection prior to pegylated interferon injection as a prophylaxis for reduction of severity of flu-like syndrome. In the first group, 76% experienced one of the flu-like syndromes. In the second group, 12% experienced flu-like syndrome and the remaining 88% reported no symptom.