Globally, ∼56.8 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), with about half residing in Asia. The cost and efficiency of delivering regimens based on direct-acting antiviral agents for HCV are important considerations in implementing these curative treatments. For sofosbuvir-based regimens, most patients are treated for 12 weeks; however, treatment for 8 weeks has been shown to cure HCV infection in 95% of patients without cirrhosis. Furthermore, virological failure after 8-week treatment occurs in only 1%-2% of individuals without cirrhosis, who have a favorable IFNL4 genotype, which is present in >50% of South Asians and >80% of East Asians. We propose that sofosbuvir-based treatment for 8 weeks, or perhaps shorter, would yield high response rate regimens in Asian countries and markedly increase the number of patients who could be cured for a given cost of the medication. We propose that a noninferiority trial in an East Asian population be conducted to test this hypothesis.

中文翻译：

---

亚洲人群中的 IFNL4 基因型频率支持采用基于索非布韦的丙型肝炎病毒治疗方案进行较短持续时间的治疗，以增加治愈人数。

全球约有 5,680 万人慢性感染丙型肝炎病毒 (HCV)，其中约一半居住在亚洲。基于直接作用的 HCV 抗病毒药物的治疗方案的成本和效率是实施这些治疗方法的重要考虑因素。对于基于索磷布韦的治疗方案，大多数患者接受 12 周的治疗；然而，8 周的治疗已被证明可以治愈 95% 的无肝硬化患者的 HCV 感染。此外，只有 1%-2% 的无肝硬化个体在 8 周治疗后出现病毒学失败，这些人具有有利的 IFNL4 基因型，而该基因型存在于 >50% 的南亚人和 >80% 的东亚人中。我们建议，基于索磷布韦的治疗持续 8 周或更短时间，将在亚洲国家产生高缓解率治疗方案，并显着增加在给定药物成本下可以治愈的患者数量。我们建议在东亚人群中进行非劣效性试验来检验这一假设。