TreatmentUpdate 68, Volume 8, No 4; May-June 1996
Sean Hosein

People with HIV/AIDS may also be infected with other microbes which could accelerate the destruction of the immune system. In such cases, the microbes act as co-factors. Once possible co-factor is HCV. In this study, researchers in Italy monitored more than 400 HIV-infected subjects, some of whom were also infected with HCV, to see if HCV infection has an effect on the course of HIV infection.

Study details

Researchers enrolled 416 HIV-infected subjects, of which 51% were also infected with HCV. All subjects were free of symptoms of HIV infection when they entered the study. No subject had less than 100 CD4+ cells. At the start of the study half of the HCV-infected subjects had a CD4+ cell count of 693 cells. The equivalent figure among the non-HCV-infected subjects was 653 cells, a difference that was not statistically significant.

Results

Twenty-one subjects who were HCV-infected developed AIDS as did 21 other subjects who did not have HCV infection. The rate of loss of CD4+ cells per year and the incidence of life-threatening infections were similar in each group. Four subjects died from "drug overdose" (they were injection drug users), "none [died from] liver disease." Overall, the researchers found that HCV infection did not speed up the destruction of the immune system.

REFERENCES:

1. Dorrucci M, Pezzotti P, Philiphs AN, et al. Co infection of Hepatitis C virus with Human Immunodeficiency Virus and progression to AIDS. Journal of Infectious Diseases 1995;172:1503-1508.

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