Spontaneous Clearance of Hepatitis C Virus Infection Among Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Men Who Have Sex With Men

Astrid M Newsum; Janke Schinkel; Thijs J W van de Laar; Jan T M van der Meer; Maria Prins

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofx090

Spontaneous Clearance of Hepatitis C Virus Infection Among Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Men Who Have Sex With Men

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2017 Jun 16;4(2):ofx090. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofx090. eCollection 2017 Spring.

Authors

Astrid M Newsum^{1

2}, Janke Schinkel³, Thijs J W van de Laar⁴, Jan T M van der Meer², Maria Prins^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Infectious Diseases Research and Prevention, Public Health Service of Amsterdam.
² Department of Internal Medicine, Center for Infection and Immunity Amsterdam (CINIMA), and.
³ Department of Medical Microbiology, Section of Clinical Virology, Academic Medical Center, and.
⁴ Department of Blood-Borne Infections, Division of Research, Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Abstract

We assessed spontaneous clearance in 27 human immunodeficiency virus-infected men who have sex with men (MSM) who seroconverted for hepatitis C virus (HCV). In contrast with a recent estimate of 45.8%, we found a spontaneous clearance rate of 11.1% (95% confidence interval = 2.4-29.2). This finding suggests that treatment deferral to await spontaneous clearance might not be justified for MSM with sexually acquired HCV.

Keywords: hepatitis C virus; men who have sex with men (MSM); spontaneous clearance..