Not knowing your HIV status could be a costly mistake, especially for people with hepatitis C.
In a major effort to get people tested for HIV, the National Association of People with AIDS and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are sponsoring National HIV Testing Day today.
Hepatitis, a disease that attacks the liver, often doesn?t present symptoms but can lead to serious illness in people also infected with HIV, according to the CDC.
But the danger is not limited to the individual patient.
Patients taking the medicine entecavir for hepatitis B without other antiviral medications put a variety of HIV treatments in jeopardy, researchers at Johns Hopkins recently reported in the online New England Journal of Medicine.
“Many co-infected patients and their physicians are justifiably concerned about whether or not to use the drug,” senior study author Dr. Chloe Thio said. More than 4 million people worldwide may be infected with both viruses.
“Patients contending with both diseases should consult with their physician to see if entecavir is the right drug to treat their hepatitis B in the first place, because the drug still works against the liver disease, or if they should refrain from taking it because of the potential for HIV drug resistance,” said Thio, associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Hepatitis B infection attacks the liver and can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer or even death from liver failure.
As a result of the study, drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb changed its product labeling to warn of the potential for HIV drug resistance, notified prescribing physicians and informed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now recommends against using entecavir ? brand name Baraclude ? to treat hepatitis B in AIDS patients not already using drugs to suppress HIV.
The Baltimore area remains one of the highest cities in the country for reported cases of AIDS, second only to Miami, according to the Maryland AIDS Administration. Health officials identified 40 HIV infections for every 100,000 people in Baltimore and Towson.
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