This is just one of the possible interactions that could be taking place between these two viruses, suggest scientists at Johns Hopkins University in a guest commentary in the September 2001 issue of the journal Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology.

The commentary is an overview of known research on the interaction between HIV and HCV in individuals infected with both viruses. It is estimated that as many as 1 in 4 HIV patients is co-infected with HCV.

One finding is that while HCV infection appears to have little effect on HIV progression and treatment, HIV infection does affect HCV. Co-infected individuals appear to have higher levels of HCV in their blood, progress to liver damage more quickly and require different treatment regimens than individuals infected with HCV alone.

On the issue of HCV as a sexually transmitted disease, "coinfection with HIV appears to increase the rate of sexual transmission of HCV," say the authors.

In one example, they cite a study in which 3 percent of female partners of coinfected men were HCV positive, while there was no evidence of transmission in couples where the man was infected only with HCV.

"There are many interactions between HCV and HIV," say the authors. "It is important that research efforts be increased in order to better understand HIV-HCV coinfection and optimal means of treating the large number of coinfected persons."

(Reference: K. Nelson and D. Thomas. 2001. Reciprocal interaction of human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C virus infections. Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, 8: 867-870.)

25-Sep-2001