Poor response to interferon treatment for chronic hepatitis C in human immunodeficiency virus-infected haemophiliacs.
We performed a pilot study to evaluate the factors associated with response to interferon (IFN) therapy for chronic hepatitis C (CHC) with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfected haemophiliacs. Seven haemophiliacs, coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV), received 9 mega-units (MU) of natural IFN-alpha daily during the first 2 weeks and then three times a week for 22 weeks, all injected subcutaneously. Six patients were receiving zidovudine (AZT) 600 mg day-1 and didanosine (ddI) 200 mg day(-1) during IFN therapy. This treatment was safe and well tolerated. Four patients had no detectable serum HCV-RNA at the end of therapy, but long-term, none of the seven patients achieved a sustained response, i.e. undetectable serum HCV-RNA with persistently normal serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) 6 months after therapy. IFN did not affect CD4-positive cell counts. Most of our patients had high HCV-RNA loads and/or low CD4 counts, both unfavourable markers for IFN therapy. In conclusion, IFN therapy did not eradicate HCV from haemophiliacs coinfected with HIV.
Hayashi
K
K
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
Fukuda
Y
Y
Nakano
I
I
Katano
Y
Y
Yokozaki
S
S
Toyoda
H
H
Takamatsu
J
J
Hayakawa
T
T
D000328:Adult; D019380:Anti-HIV Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D000998:Antiviral Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D016049:Didanosine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy; D006467:Hemophilia A / Q000150:complications*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D015215:Zidovudine / Q000008:administration & dosage
D019380:Anti-HIV Agents; D000998:Antiviral Agents; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D015215:Zidovudine; D016049:Didanosine