Not so sweet: autoimmune diabetes mellitus on triple therapy for chronic hepatitis C infection.

Background: Triple therapy with pegylated interferon, ribavirin and a protease inhibitor has proven efficacy in hepatitis C infection and is currently the standard of care. Interferon-based therapies have been, rarely, associated with the development of Type 1 diabetes mellitus, but few cases have yet been reported in triple therapy for hepatitis C.

Case Report: We describe a case of autoimmune Type 1 diabetes developing in a 23-year-old woman after initiation of triple therapy for chronic hepatitis C virus infection. The patient had the IL-28B gene polymorphism rs12979860 CT genotype, which is associated not only with antiviral therapy response but also with diabetes risk after liver transplantation for hepatitis C.

Conclusion: Further studies are required to determine which individual characteristics may identify patients who are at risk of developing Type 1 diabetes when treated with interferon-based regimens for hepatitis C infection.