Agata Skrzat-Klapaczyńska1,2, Bartłomiej Matłosz3, Dan Otelea4, Arjan Harxhi5, Anna Vassilenko6, Natalia Bolokadze7, Kristi Rüütel8, Antonios Papadopoulos9, Mariana Mardarescu10, Mike Youle11, Justyns D. Kowalska1,2, Aandrzej Horban1,2. 1. Hospital for Infectious Diseases, Warsaw 2. Medical University of Warsaw, Department for Adult’s Infectious Diseases, Warsaw, Poland 3. Hospital for Infectious Diseases, HIV Out-Patient Clinic, Warsaw, Poland 4. National Institute for Infectious Diseases, Bucharest, Romania 5. Department of Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Center of Tirana, Albania 6. Belarusian State Medical University, Minsk, Belarus 7. Infectious Diseases, AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Center, Tbilisi, Georgia 8. Department of Drug and Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, Tallinn, Estonia 9. Medical School - National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, University General Hospital “ATTIKON”, Athens, Greece 10. Pediatric Department, National Institute for Infectious Diseases “Prof Dr Matei Balş”, Bucharest, Romania 11. Department of HIV Medicine, Royal Free London Hospital, London, UK
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: There is currently an urgent need to harmonize hepatitis standards of care for HIV-positive patients across Europe. The HIV epidemic in Central and Eastern Europe has often been driven by injecting drug use, therefore a higher rate of co-infection with HCV and HBV is expected in this region. We have investigated the epidemiological prevalence and treatment availability for end-stage liver disease in HIV/HCV/HBV coinfections in countries represented in the ECEE Network Group. METHODS: The Euroguidelines in Central and Eastern Europe (ECEE) Network Group was initiated in February 2016 to compare standards of care regarding HIV infection in the region. Information about HIV/HCV/HBV co-infections and the availability for end-stage liver disease treatment for HIV-positive patients were collected through on-line surveys. The respondents were ECEE members from 16 countries of the region. The information on co-infection prevalence was sourced from WHO, national HIV programmes, articles published in international journals, single clinic reports, and personal information in ten of the participating countries (62.5%). RESULTS: The HIV/HCV co-infection rate was from 3% to 99%. The range of reported of HIV/HBV coinfection percentages was 2.3% to 40%. HIV/HCV/HBV co-infection ranged from 0% to 9%. Regarding treatment for end-stage liver disease, liver transplantation was an available option for HIV-positive patients in only three countries (19%). CONCLUSION: Our findings revealed only a limited number of treatment options for the end-stage liver disease in HIV-positive patients for the vast majority of Central and Eastern European countries. There are gaps in epidemiological surveillance in this region. It appears there are many differences in the number of co-infected patients among Central and Eastern European and neighboring countries, but there is no unification of information sources.
OBJECTIVES: There is currently an urgent need to harmonize hepatitis standards of care for HIV-positivepatients across Europe. The HIV epidemic in Central and Eastern Europe has often been driven by injecting drug use, therefore a higher rate of co-infection with HCV and HBV is expected in this region. We have investigated the epidemiological prevalence and treatment availability for end-stage liver disease in HIV/HCV/HBV coinfections in countries represented in the ECEE Network Group. METHODS: The Euroguidelines in Central and Eastern Europe (ECEE) Network Group was initiated in February 2016 to compare standards of care regarding HIV infection in the region. Information about HIV/HCV/HBV co-infections and the availability for end-stage liver disease treatment for HIV-positivepatients were collected through on-line surveys. The respondents were ECEE members from 16 countries of the region. The information on co-infection prevalence was sourced from WHO, national HIV programmes, articles published in international journals, single clinic reports, and personal information in ten of the participating countries (62.5%). RESULTS: The HIV/HCV co-infection rate was from 3% to 99%. The range of reported of HIV/HBV coinfection percentages was 2.3% to 40%. HIV/HCV/HBV co-infection ranged from 0% to 9%. Regarding treatment for end-stage liver disease, liver transplantation was an available option for HIV-positivepatients in only three countries (19%). CONCLUSION: Our findings revealed only a limited number of treatment options for the end-stage liver disease in HIV-positivepatients for the vast majority of Central and Eastern European countries. There are gaps in epidemiological surveillance in this region. It appears there are many differences in the number of co-infectedpatients among Central and Eastern European and neighboring countries, but there is no unification of information sources.
Authors: Agata Skrzat-Klapaczyńska; Justyna D Kowalska; Larisa Afonina; Svitlana Antonyak; Tatevik Balayan; Josip Begovac; Dominik Bursa; Gordana Dragovic; Deniz Gokengin; Arjan Harxhi; David Jilich; Kerstin Kase; Botond Lakatos; Mariana Mardarescu; Raimonda Matulionyte; Cristiana Oprea; Aleksandr Panteleev; Antonios Papadopoulos; Lubomir Sojak; Janez Tomazic; Anna Vassilenko; Marta Vasylyev; Antonija Verhaz; Nina Yancheva; Oleg Yurin; Andrzej Horban Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2022-06-21 Impact factor: 4.614