WASHINGTON, July 28 (AFP) - Hepatitis C can be treated effectively in patients who also suffer from HIV/AIDS without compromising HIV treatments, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A team of researchers led by Francesca Torriani of the University of California, San Diego, studied nearly 900 patients with both HIV/AIDS and the hepatitis C virus over a three-year period in 19 countries.
"To date, there has been considerable anxiety in treating co-infected patients due to concern that the HCV (hepatitis C virus) drugs would be less effective than in people with HCV only, and that they would interfere with HIV control," Torriani said.
"Physicians have worried about unacceptable toxicities such as lowered white blood (cell) count and anemia. As a result, nearly all co-infected HIV/HCV patients have not been treated," Torriani noted.
Researchers gave some of the patients weekly injections of peginterferon alfa-2a and, on a daily basis, ribavirin pills. Following treatment, 40 percent of the patients had no trace of the hepatitis C virus in their blood, the highest improvement rate ever documented in co-infected patients.
Researchers also said that treatment for hepatitis C would not be undermined by drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS.
While strong anti-viral therapies are helping to prolong the lives of HIV/AIDS patients, hepatitis C is the leading cause of liver disease and death in patients suffering from both illnesses. Most co-infected people are not diagnosed and treated for their hepatitis.
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