Therapeutic management of hepatitis and HIV infection in co-infected patients: results of a survey performed before the 2005 Consensus Conference.

The First European Consensus Conference on the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B and C in HIV Co-infected Patients aimed to produce recommendations that could be applied across Europe. However, some important differences exist around Europe, in terms of access to treatment and tests for monitoring. This short survey of 24 European countries showed that access to anti-HCV treatment is low (approximately 10%) in patients with HCV/HIV co-infection--generally access is higher in Western Europe than in Eastern or Northern Europe. This low use of anti-HCV therapy is not a result of poor availability (of drugs or virological tests), which are available in all countries surveyed. Recently published trials in co-infected patients and the outcome from this Consensus Conference will hopefully lead to wider access to anti-HCV therapy and better management of co-infected patients across Europe.