When a disease requires long-term treatment, long-term medication, even to the point of not being able to stop, it is very difficult for people to accept, and that is how hepatitis B needs to be treated! Why hepatitis B needs antiviral It has been proven that hepatitis B virus is the root cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in hepatitis B. Therefore, the overall goal of treatment for patients with hepatitis B is to maximize long-term suppression of HBV, reduce hepatocellular inflammation and necrosis and hepatic fibrosis, and to slow down and reduce the occurrence of hepatic failure, cirrhosis loss of compensation, HCC, and other complications, so as to improve the quality of life and prolong the survival time. The short-term goal of treatment is to effectively inhibit HBV replication so that inflammation, necrosis and fibrosis of the liver improve. Guideline Discontinuation Criteria for Hepatitis B Antiviral Drugs Previous guidelines suggested that the discontinuation criteria for nucleoside analogues were serologic conversion of e antigen, maintenance of HBVDNA at undetectable levels, normalization of aminotransferases, and then continuation of treatment for at least 1 year and a total course of treatment of at least 2 years or more before discontinuation of the drug could be considered. For e-antigen negative chronic hepatitis B, a longer course of treatment is required, with HBV DNA below the lower limit of detection, aminotransferases returning to normal, and then at least 1.5 years of continuous treatment, with a total course of treatment of at least 2.5 years, before discontinuation of the drug can be considered. However, it was later found in the clinic that the relapse rate after stopping the drug according to this criterion was very high, so now the criterion was raised again, and it became that the total course of treatment for e antigen-positive patients should be at least 4 years, and that after HBV DNAf is below the lower limit of the test value, ALT is normalized, and the serological conversion of the e antigen is completed, and then consolidated treatment can be considered to be discontinued only after it is still unchanged for more than 3 years. For e antigen negative patients, it is required to achieve the disappearance of HBsAg and undetectable HBV DNA, and then consolidate the treatment for 1.5 years and remain unchanged before considering stopping the drug. Why hepatitis B patients need long-term antiviral treatment The long-term goal of hepatitis B treatment is to achieve serologic conversion of the e antigen and ultimately the disappearance of hepatitis B surface antigen. The long-term goal can never be achieved in the short term, and requires adherence to long-term effective antiviral therapy, which often takes several years or more than a decade of effort to achieve. Because nucleoside (acid) analogs only inhibit hepatitis B virus replication rather than killing the virus, they are prone to relapse after discontinuing them, so they need to be taken for a long time. Acute exacerbation of hepatitis has been reported in patients who stopped nucleoside (acid) analog therapy