HIV Prevalence among HCV Egyptian Infected Patients and Its Impact on the Result of HCV Treatment

Abstract

Background and Aim of the Study: HCV infection is the most common co-infection in HIV patients so we aimed to determine the prevalence of HIV infection in chronic HCV patients and its impact on chronic HCV patients treatment response. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study performed on 1852 chronic HCV patients subjected to anti HCV treatment with alpha 2a, alpha 2b or standard interferon and Ribavirin and tested and confirmed for HIV co infection by ELISA twice. Upon HIV testing, two groups were generated, Group 1: 1840 HCV patients, positive for HCV RNA, and Group 2: 12 HIV positive patients and positive also for HCV. Informed consents were obtained from patients. Proper hematological biochemical investigations and other causes of hepatitis rather than HCV were carried out and excluded. Results: The prevalence of HIV among HCV infected Egyptian patients was 0.64%. We found a male gender predominance; the hematological and biochemical parameters were similar in both groups with mild elevations in liver enzymes in group II. High rates of failure to treatment (77.8%) with lower SVR (22.2%) were in group II compared to group I (59.9%) as SVR was 22.1% in group II vs. 34.1% in group I, however with no statistical significance. Conclusion: Despite the lower prevalence of HIV in Egyptian patients with HCV infection, it still affects their response to treatment .Therefore; we must screen HIV in all HCV patients and recommend its test to routine investigations before starting HCV therapy.