Men coinfected with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) are at significantly reduced risk of developing decompensated liver disease after beginning antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for HIV, aidsmap reports. Publishing their findings in Clinical Infectious Diseases, investigators analyzed data on 10,000 coinfected men taken from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study Virtual Cohort. The men had not yet begun ARVs when they entered the study.

Between 1996 and 2010, there were 645 cases of decompensated liver disease among 46,444 person-years of follow-up, for an incidence rate of 1.4 per 100 person-years. Those who started ARVs had between a 28 and 41 percent reduced risk of decompensated liver disease.

The findings support the current U.S. guidelines that advise all people coinfected with HIV and hep C to begin ARVs immediately.

To read the aidsmap story, click here.

To read the study abstract, click here.