Hydroxyurea: A useful adjunct to the standard antiviral therapy in chronic hepatitis B

I read with interest the article by Kashani et al, on the use of hydroxyurea (HU) in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B published in Hepatitis Monthly (1). In their article, the authors performed a limited pilot study and concluded that HU effectively blocks HBV replication. Favorable dosing schedule, safety profile, and cost make HU a very attractive adjunct to the therapeutic armamentarium in a wide range of diseases including sickle cell anemia, thalassemia intermedia and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (2, 3). The potential role of HU in the treatment of HIV infection was supported first by in vitro experiments and then by controlled clinical trials (4).