Insights Into the Coinfections of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Hepatitis B Virus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Hepatitis C Virus, and Hepatitis B Virus-Hepatitis C Virus: Prevalence, Risk Factors, Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Treatment.

Sagarika Shahriar,Pravakar Kattel,Rahila Zannat Sadiea,Ganga Sagar Sah,Tanjim Ishraq Rahaman,Yusha Araf,Md Golzar Hossain,Md Sayeedul Islam,Chunfu Zheng,Shahnaj Sultana,Rasel Ahmad

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2021.780887

Abstract

Human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C virus are three blood-borne viruses that can cause major global health issues by increasing severe morbidity. There is a high risk of coinfection with these viruses in individuals because of their same transmission routes through blood using shared needles, syringes, other injection equipment, sexual transmission, or even vertical transmission. Coinfection can cause various liver-related illnesses, non-hepatic organ dysfunction, followed by death compared to any of these single infections. The treatment of coinfected patients is complicated due to the side effects of antiviral medication, resulting in drug resistance, hepatotoxicity, and a lack of required responses. On the other hand, coinfected individuals must be treated with multiple drugs simultaneously, such as for HIV either along with HBV or HCV and HBV and HCV. Therefore, diagnosing, treating, and controlling dual infections with HIV, HBV, or HCV is complicated and needs further investigation. This review focuses on the current prevalence, risk factors, and pathogenesis of dual infections with HIV, HBV, and HCV. We also briefly overviewed the diagnosis and treatment of coinfections of these three blood-borne viruses.

Highlights

The coinfection of viruses can be a serious public health problem because most medicines are designed to control and manage a single infection
It is estimated that 90% of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients with acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) will gradually develop chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV), which shows a higher prevalence in coinfected patients than singly-infected (Collin et al, 2009)
Forrester et al reported that aspartyl transferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels were significantly higher (P < 0.0001), and platelet counts were lower (P < 0.01) in HIVHCV coinfected individuals than in patients infected with only HIV (Forrester et al, 2012)

Summary

Introduction

The coinfection of viruses can be a serious public health problem because most medicines are designed to control and manage a single infection. Several studies reported that the prevalence of HIV-HBV coinfection among people who inject drugs (PWID) increases with age (Falade-Nwulia and Thio, 2011; Wing, 2017). Coinfected patients have higher HCV RNA loads and experience more rapid progression of HCV-related liver disease than those without HIV infection (Thomas et al, 2000).

Results

Conclusion