Immunological and anti-viral therapy of chronic hepatitis B virus infection.

Although we have reached the stage when we can influence viral replication and some aspects of the immune response to the viral antigens, no practical and effective therapeutic regimen has been evolved. The next few years should, however, see considerable advances in this field, perhaps with combined anti-viral and immunostimulant regimens. The need to consider the infectivity of the patient, the risk of developing clinically significant chronic liver disease and the risk of developing clinically significant chronic liver disease and the risk of developing primary liver cell carcinoma in each patient may dictate that different regimens will be needed for HBe antigen-positive and negative carriers and for patients with chronic active or chronic persistent hepatitis and carriers with normal liver histology.