Is hepatitis B treatment a long-term process?

Although the treatment of hepatitis B has entered a new era, there are currently no drugs or treatment options to clear the virus in the short term. Immune control is a more realistic and achievable goal through drug therapy, which means that the replication of the hepatitis B virus in the body is completely suppressed by the body’s defense system and the virus enters an inactive state. However, the clearance of virus-infected cells is affected by the combination of the life span of the hepatocytes themselves, the activity of virus replication, and the body’s immune response to the virus. Although the life span of hepatocytes is about 150 days, if the virus keeps replicating and secreting new viruses in the hepatocytes, it will keep infecting other hepatocytes and new hepatocytes, therefore, the first step in treatment is to have effective drugs and programs to stop the replication of the virus. Secondly, how to promote the elimination of virus-infected hepatocytes in a controlled, effective and safe manner is also an aspect that has rarely been researched, some drugs such as interferon may have an effect in this regard, but it is far from enough to be effective and controlled. By effective, I mean that it does eliminate virally infected liver cells, and by controlled and safe, I mean that it eliminates virally infected cells without seriously damaging the overall function of the liver. Of course, as viral replication is completely suppressed, the body can also gradually eliminate viral infected liver cells through its own immune action and the law of liver cell metabolism, but this is a very long and slow process. Although nucleoside analogues can stop viral replication, the replication template of the virus is like a tree root that exists stably in the nucleus of liver cells, and there are no drugs or methods that can uproot it. This determines that treatment with nucleoside analogs alone is a very long process, and how long it will take is anyone’s guess. As far as the current status of research on hepatitis B is concerned, objectively speaking, the treatment of hepatitis B is never a simple matter of taking drugs and giving injections, but should be a complex set of individualized treatment plans for patients with different infection states in an orderly or procedural manner. For chronic hepatitis B patients, there are currently effective drugs to stop the replication of the virus, should feel grateful, because it can effectively protect the safety of the liver, slow down the progress of the disease, may prevent the occurrence of cirrhosis and liver cancer, for us to improve the health condition to extend the life should feel a certain satisfaction, after all, people can not live forever and ever health.