Body Positive Lincs | Hep C treatment in co-infected proves life-prolonging and cost-effective

Hepatitis C treatment is cost effective in people co-infected with HIV and provides “substantial” benefits in life expectancy, according to new research.
Harvard researchers analysed data from recent clinical trials to estimate the potential health benefits, cost, and cost effectiveness of three hep C treatment strategies in people with stable HIV.
Almost all those included in the analysis had CD4 counts above 200, the average age was 44 and two-thirds had hep C genotype 1.
Pegylated interferon-alfa and ribavirin was consistently more effective and cost-effective than interferon-alfa and ribavirin, or pegylated interferon-alfa alone, particularly in patients who didn’t have genotype 1 (genotypes 2, 3, 4 etc).
People who didn’t have genotype 1, who usually respond better to treatment, experienced greater life expectancy gains at a lower cost. Results were very similar for women and men.
“For co-infected patients with stable HIV disease, treatment appears to be not only life-prolonging but cost-effective as well,” the researchers concluded.
Am J Med 2007;120:272-279

If you are HIV-positive you have a lot to deal with on your plate already. The last thing you need is to have your liver ruined by a Hepatitis C infection as well. Unfortunately it appears that the co-infection rate is soaring, according to the latest National AIDS Trust (NAT) report.

Recent studies have shown that the amount of gay men discovering that they are HIV-positive is increasing at a dramatic rate, especially in the younger population. Every week there seems to be a new statistic telling us that we are going to catch it, that every potential partner is going to infect us with it, and as a result we have started to moderate our behaviour to allow for this. However, there is another statistic which is increasing alongside this; infection of Hepatitis C is increasing too. According to the NAT’s Report, 9% of HIV-positive people in the UK are infected with Hepatitis C too, which doesn’t sound like a lot. If you factor in statistics like the amount of estimated people who are positive, and the increases in young men who have been infected, you end up looking at scary numbers. Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of NAT, told So So Gay, ‘The rate of HIV-positive gay men co-infected with hepatitis C in the UK is too high. It is crucial for this to be addressed as a strategic priority in gay men’s health promotion.’

According to the report, those who test positive for Hepatitis C are marginalised and vilified by the HIV-positive community in the same way that those with HIV have been by the gay community at large. One participant quoted in the report said, ‘Hep C is not yet owned by the gay community like HIV, and if it isn’t owned, then it is outside and more stigmatised… Even within the gay community, and the HIV community too, it has created a ‘them’ and ‘us’ type situation’. This seems ridiculous for two main reasons: one of the biggest things we hear from the HIV community is how they wish to be treated normally, and this paints a very hypocritical picture; and unlike HIV, Hepatitis is curable in the some cases.

The report goes on to discuss prevention and treatment of Hepatitis C, quoting a success rate of up to 80% early treatment rate in HIV-positive individuals. The key it seems, as per usual, is in the power of knowledge: knowing about the risks and how to avoid risky situations is what differs those who have it and those who don’t.

http://sosogay.org/2012/hivs-increasingly-dangerous-sidekick/