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Curing hepatitis C infection substantially reduces the risk of developing type II diabetes in people with HIV/HCV coinfection, but does not reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancers or other non-AIDS events, a study of coinfected patients treated in Spain between 2000 and 2008 has shown. The findings are published online ahead of print in the journal Hepatology.
The study also found a trend towards a reduced risk of kidney failure in those cured of hepatitis C, although the trend did not reach statistical significance.
As well as causing liver damage, hepatitis C infection can lead to extrahepatic disease, including cryoglobulinemia, chronic kidney disease and renal failure, diabetes and B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Hepatitis C has also been implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease.
Curing hepatitis C infection has been shown to reduce the risk of diabetes, kidney failure and cardiovascular disease in monoinfected people, but the extrahepatic effects of curing hepatitis C have not been established in people coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C.
At the end of the study, however, the researchers say: “Our data suggest that eradication of HCV in coinfected patients is associated not only with a reduction in the frequency of death, HIV progression, and liver-related events, but also with a reduced hazard of diabetes mellitus and possibly of chronic renal failure. These findings argue for the prescription of HCV therapy in coinfected patients regardless of fibrosis stage.”