Journal of Infectious Diseases & Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

In the last few years, a growing body of clinical evidence has highlighted the risk of vitamin D deficiency in chronic hepatitis C patients and that vitamin D levels are associated with the course of hepatitis C virus infection, adverse effects and treatment response to peginterferon/ribavirin. Recently, studies have found that vitamin D status is related to drug resistance and increased risk of infection in patients with liver cirrhosis. Vitamin D-related gene polymorphisms have been found to explain the interactions between vitamin D deficiency and HCV infection, offering a new perspective to understand current problems such as the development of insulin resistance and racial differences in sustained virological response. Studies have been conducted to determine whether vitamin D supplementation as an adjuvant yields a better result compared to traditional HCV treatment. Here, we provide a brief review of the past and present knowledge of vitamin D in HCV infection.

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