Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Diretoria de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento, Fundação Ezequiel Dias, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil.
2 Programa de Pós Graduação em Ciência da Saúde: Infectologia e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil.
Abstract
Background: Brazilian therapeutic guidelines for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were created in 2011, however data on medical practice adherence is scarce.
Methods: The application of these principles to patient records from the Central Laboratory of Minas Gerais was compared in this cross-sectional study (January to June 2014).
Results: 47 physicians from 33 localities assisted 90 HCV-infected patients. However, though 84.4% of naive treatment patients met the indication criteria to begin therapy, the therapeutic guidelines were only fully applied to two patients. In contrast, 12 individuals were treated, with seven of them receiving pegylated interferon in combination with ribavirin (HCV-1 and three genotypes). Only two patients had therapeutic response monitoring (six months after the completion of therapy), and no retreatment was documented.
Conclusion: Within the Public Health System, there was virtually little medical implementation of Brazilian therapeutic guidelines for HCV infection. These findings reinforce the notion that hepatitis C is still underdiagnosed and undertreated in Minas Gerais. There is a need to train clinicians to use the Clinical Protocol and Therapeutic Guidelines for the Treatment of Viral Hepatitis C, with the goal of both timely treatment indication and laboratory follow-up of patients.
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