People chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus currently have only one treatment option:  a combination of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-ylated interferon alpha and ribavirin (RBV).   Not only does this drug regimen fail to eradicate the virus in about half of all patients who receive it, but even when it does work the side effects can [...]

Tags: anemia, hepatitis C, ITPA, Nature, red blood cells, ribavirin

Doctors routinely order the complete blood count (CBC) for their patients because they can learn a lot about a person’s health by measuring the numbers of different types of blood cells in the circulation, their sizes and the ratios between them.
One component of the CBC is usually a measure of the total amount of hemoglobin, [...]

Tags: anemia, blood, CBC, hemochromatosis, hemoglobin, Nature Genetics