Coinfection

Patients with HIV and hepatitis B coinfection are at an increased risk for hepatitis D, which is associated with an increased risk of liver-related complications and mortality, researchers found.

Patients who died of a COVID-19 and tuberculosis coinfection had a shorter median time to death compared with patients who died of either COVID-19 or TB alone, according to results published in European Respiratory Journal.

SEATTLE — The ALLIANCE trial showed positive data on bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide treatment for HIV and hepatitis B coinfection while also providing data on treatment outcome predictors.

People with HIV and untreated hepatitis C virus have an 85% higher risk for type 1 MI per each 10-year increase in age, researchers reported.

In a Healio video exclusive, Harvey Kaufman, MD, senior medical director at Quest Diagnostics, highlighted the need for concurrent hepatitis B and latent tuberculosis testing to mitigate the risk for drug-induced liver injury.

Compared to current practices of annual screening for hepatitis C virus in men who have sex with men, working toward reducing their risk and screening every 6 months could prove cost effective, according to a presentation.

Around 10% of patients hospitalized for influenza and community-acquired pneumonia also had a community-onset bacterial coinfection, and these patients experienced worse outcomes and higher costs, according to a large U.S. study.

A study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology reported “widespread” use of empirical antibiotics for patients with COVID-19 at a New York hospital, and that coinfections among COVID-19 patients were uncommon.

Establishing a co-located hepatitis C virus clinic within an HIV clinic successfully managed co-infected patients — a typically hard-to-treat population — resulting in HCV treatment initiation in 70.5% of participants and an SVR at 12 weeks post-treatment or cure in 56.1% of patients, according to a study.

The direct-acting antivirals for hepatitis C virus represent an advance in the treatment of individuals coinfected with hepatitis C virus and HIV, but access to these antivirals can sometimes be a challenge, according to Stacey Trooskin, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of infectious Disease & HIV Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.