Vitamin B12 supplementation improves rates of sustained viral response in patients chronically infected with hepatitis C virus.

Background: In vitro, vitamin B12 acts as a natural inhibitor of hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication.

Objective: To assess the effect of vitamin B12 on virological response in patients with chronic HCV hepatitis naïve to antiviral therapy.

Methods: Ninety-four patients with chronic HCV hepatitis were randomly assigned to receive pegylated interferon α plus ribavirin (standard-of-care; SOC) or SOC plus vitamin B12 (SOC+B12).

Tracking the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus in the Italian region Campania.

A novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus affecting humans was detected in April 2009 in Mexico, Canada, and USA. The S-OIV infection caused a mild to severe febrile respiratory disease throughout the world. Here, we briefly review the main features of influenza A viruses, which caused also other pandemics in the past, and focus in particular on the epidemiology data of the H1N1 influenza in the Italian region Campania, which resulted the most affected by the S-OIV and the one with more lethal cases.