Prevalence and burden of HCV co-infection in people living with HIV: a global systematic review and meta-analysis

At global level, there are 37 million people infected with HIV and 115 million people with antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV). Little is known about the extent of HIV–HCV co-infection. We sought to characterise the epidemiology and burden of HCV co-infection in people living with HIV.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis we searched for studies measuring prevalence of HCV and HIV, published between Jan 1, 2002, and Jan 28, 2015. We included studies in HIV population samples of more than 50 individuals and recruited patients based on HIV infection status or other behavioural characteristics. We excluded editorials or reviews containing no primary data, samples of HCV or HIV–HCV co-infected individuals, or samples relying on self-reported infection status. We also excluded samples drawn from populations with other comorbidities or undergoing interventions that put them at increased risk of co-infection. Populations were categorised according to HIV exposure, with the regional burden of co-infection being derived by applying co-infection prevalence estimates to published numbers of HIV-infected individuals. We did a meta-analysis to estimate the odds of HCV in HIV-infected individuals compared with their HIV-negative counterparts.

Dr Lucy Platt, PhD; Philippa Easterbrook, MD; Erin Gower, MPH; Bethan McDonald, PhD; Keith Sabin, PhD; Catherine McGowan, PhD; Irini Yanny, MBChB; Homie Razavi, PhD; Prof Peter Vickerman, D Phil

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