Considering hepatitis C virus infection as a systemic disease

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has been demonstrated to result in several adverse hepatic outcomes and has been associated with a number of important extrahepatic manifestations. The scope of extrahepatic clinical possibilities includes systemic diseases such as vasculitis and lymphoproliferative disorders, cardiovascular disease, myalgia, arthritis, and sicca syndrome. These end‐organ effects of HCV may dominate the clinical course beyond the hepatic complications and significantly worsen the long‐term prognosis of infected patients. Until several years ago, the standard of care for the treatment of HCV infection had been interferon‐alpha‐based regimens, which not only had limited effectiveness in achieving a cure but were often poorly tolerated, especially in patients with kidney disease. In those HCV‐infected patients with significant systemic manifestations, the interferon‐based regimens were problematic given their association with a wide variety of toxicities. The development of highly effective direct‐acting antiviral agents to treat HCV infection presented an opportunity to improve the HCV care cascade with the eradication of HCV in most infected patients and by reducing the burden of both hepatic and extrahepatic complications.