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Background: Cure rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for patients with active and inactive hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may differ, but well-controlled studies are limited. We aimed to evaluate DAA outcomes in a large East Asian HCV/HCC population compared with HCV/non-HCC patients., Methods: Using data from the Real-World Evidence from the Asia Liver Consortium (REAL-C) registry (Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan), we used propensity score matching (PSM) to match HCC and non-HCC (1:1) groups for age, sex, cirrhosis, prior treatment, HCV genotype, treatment regimen, baseline platelet count, HCV RNA, total bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase, and albumin levels to evaluate DAA treatment outcomes in a large population of HCV/HCC compared with HCV/non-HCC patients., Results: We included 6081 patients (HCC, n = 465; non-HCC, n = 5 616) treated with interferon-free DAAs. PSM of the entire study population yielded 436 matched pairs with similar baseline characteristics. There was no statistically significant difference in the overall SVR rate of HCC (92.7%) and non-HCC (95.0%) groups. Rates of treatment discontinuation, adverse effects, and death were also similar between HCC and non-HCC groups. Among patients with HCC, those with active HCC had a lower SVR than inactive HCC cases (85.5% vs 93.7%; P = .03). On multivariable analysis, active HCC, but not inactive HCC, was significantly associated with lower SVR (OR, 0.28; P = .01) when compared with non-HCC., Conclusions: Active HCC but not inactive HCC was independently associated with lower SVR compared with non-HCC patients undergoing DAA therapy, although cure rate was still relatively high (85%) in active HCC patients., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

A 1-month-old rabbit, imported as a pet by a distributor, died suddenly in the quarantine period in Japan due to suppurative pleuropneumonia. A bacterial isolate from its right lung was identified as Pasteurella multocida serotype A: 11. The isolate was classified as ST204 using the RIRDC scheme of multilocus sequence typing, suggesting that the isolate was genetically related to European isolates of the same sequence type listed in the PubMLST database and not to four other isolates that originated from past imported rabbits. In the immunohistochemical assay, an antiserum recognizing the somatic serotype 11 antigen generated from chicken could specifically detect P. multocida, indicating that the antiserum for somatic serotyping was useful for immunohistochemical diagnosis of rabbit pasteurellosis.

Background and Aims: One-third of the global hepatitis C virus (HCV) burden is found in Asia. Real-world data from diverse East Asian cohorts remain limited. This study addressed the real-world status of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy among patients from East Asia., Methods: Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients from clinical sites in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong were recruited in the REAL-C registry, an observational chart review registry. The primary outcome was sustained virologic response (SVR12, HCV RNA PCR < 25 IU/mL 12 week post-therapy)., Results: A total of 6287 CHC patients were enrolled. Compared to other East Asian patients, patients from Japan were older (66.3 vs. 61.5 years, p < 0.0001), had lower body mass indices (22.9 kg/m 2 vs. 24.6 kg/m 2 , p < 0.001), and were more likely to have non-liver malignancy history (12.2% vs. 5.0%, p < 0.001).The overall SVR12 rate was 96.4%, similar to patients both inside and outside Japan (96.6% vs. 96%, p = 0.21). The SVR12 rate ranged from 91.1 to 99.4% except treatment-experienced cirrhotic HCV genotype-1 patients who received daclatasvir/asunaprevir (85.9%) and the treatment-experienced cirrhotic HCV genotype-2 patients treated with sofosbuvir/ribavirin (87%). The overall rate of drug discontinuation was 1.9%, also similar across regions. On multivariate regression analyses, there was no significant association between geographic region and SVR outcomes., Conclusions: In this large multinational CHC cohort from the East Asia, oral DAAs were highly effective and well tolerated across the region. Policies should encourage treatment for all CHC patients with DAAs in Asia with its heavy burden of HCV.