Side effects of antiviral drugs used for the treatment of HBV/HDV viruses from a multidisciplinary perspective

Approximately 2 billion people worldwide show exposure to the virus, and nearly 257 million people carry a Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) chronic infection. Today, HBV treatment remains challenging and new treatments are in the pipeline and ready for the next future. In this review, we summarize the side effects of the approved drugs for HBV/HDV treatment (including new treatments) focusing on the cutaneous ones that have a higher overall prevalence in HBV-treated patients. Remarkably, the HBV/HDV co-infection may lead to the most severe form of viral hepatitis and interestingly treatment evidence for hepatitis D is still poor. Furthermore, HBV eradication is of fundamental importance to preventing hepatitis D. HBV eradication might be possible in the next future with the current armamentarium and development of new drugs; new studies should be performed to compare and rank the use of HBV/HDV drugs.