Seroprevalence of HCV in HIV infected patients : A study from tertiary care hospital

Introduction: There is a high degree of similarity between Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in terms of routes of transmission, associated risk factors and their presence in the body fluids. Thus the co-infection of these two viruses is a common phenomenon. HIV accelerates the natural course of HCV infection and facilitates faster progression of liver disease to cirrhosis and heap tocellular carcinoma. Co-infection of HCV with HIV infection results into substantial impairment of cell mediated responses, faster progression of HIV to AIDS-defining illness. Progression of liver related pathogenicity in HIV-HCV co-infection leads to increased risk of drug related hepatotoxicity when Anti-retroviral Therapy (ART) is initiated in these patients. Material and Methods: A study was carried out in a tertiary care Hospital to determine the sero-prevalence of HIV-HCV co-infection. 200 randomly selected newly diagnosed HIV patients were enrolled. From each of the patient, 3-5 cc venous blood was collected and Anti-HCV by ELISA was performed on obtained serum samples. Recent CD4 T cell count, Liver function Tests and WHO staging of the co-infected patients was noted. Results: A single HIV-HCV co-infected case was found with its sero-prevalence of 0.5%. The co-infected case had lower CD4 T-cell count, deranged ALT level and presented with WHO clinical stage-II. Summary and Conclusions: We recommend screening of all HIV positive patients for Anti-HCV to know HIV-HCV co-infection. In HIV-HCV co-infected cases, liver function tests, CD4 T-cell count and WHO clinical staging should be regularly monitored.