Infectious disease experts at Johns Hopkins have found that among people infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), co-infection with HIV, speeds damage and scarring of liver tissue by almost a decade.
In a second study of HCV infection, the Johns Hopkins research team participated in the discovery of two genetic mutations that make it more likely that patients’ immune systems can rid the body of HCV. Both studies are described in articles published online in February ahead of print in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
“Our latest study results suggest that HIV might promote aging and disease progression in people with HCV,” says infectious disease specialist and senior investigator, David L. Thomas, M.D., M.P.H. Thomas, who is the Stanhope Bayne-Jones Professor and director of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a professor at the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, says that among 1,176 study participants, those co-infected with HCV and HIV showed the same severity of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis as those who were infected only with HCV but were 9.2 years older. All study participants were current and former intravenous drug users from Baltimore whose health and disease progression were being monitored with bi-monthly check-ups and liver tissue samples taken from 2006 to 2011.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that a quarter of the 3.2 million Americans chronically infected with HCV are also infected with HIV.
Thomas says the findings may help physicians predict the people who are most likely to self-recover from exposure to HCV, and those who will most likely require aggressive treatment right away.
The press release can be accessed at:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/jhm-sak030413.php
Free access to the articles is available for a limited time at: http://annals.org/onlineFirst.aspx
Source: – John Hopkins Medicine – March 4, 2013
Methadone reduces risk of HIV infection in people who inject drugs, a new study says.
Reuters reported on August 19 that the United States Preventive Services Task force, a government-backed group of clinicians and scientists, is expected to make a new recommendation on HIV screening available for public comment before the end of the year.
The worldwide war on drugs has been a “remarkable failure,” only serving to drive the spread of HIV among drug users and their sexual partners, suggests a new report published by The Global Commission on Drug Policy.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and their Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) network, along with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), are urging substance abuse treatment programs to step up rapid testing for HIV during the time patients are in treatment programs. Patients in substance abuse treatment are at high risk of HIV infection because they may engage in injection drug use and unsafe sex.
In 1992 in Los Angeles, where needle exchanges were already in effect, the rate of HIV among those who injected drugs was 8.4%. In 1993, the HIV rate in Miami for that population was the highest in the country: 48%. Although Miami put into place HIV-prevention programs, there has never been a large-scale needle exchange program there. Today the rate of HIV among injection drug users in Miami is 16%. In Los Angeles, the rate stayed low, and as of 2009, the most recent data available, it was 5%.
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