The 1997 mortality rate in HIV-infected patients presenting cirrhosis due to hepatitis C virus. Results of the GERMIVIC multicenter survey conducted in the French departments of either internal medicine or infectious diseases

Purpose. - Hepatitis C (HCV) has a high prevalence (10-30 %) among human im munodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. However, little information i s available regarding the impact of hepatitis C on survival. The objective of our study was to determine the incidence of hepatitis C-related deaths i n HIV-HCV co-infected patients. Methods. - The study was a retrospective (1-year), multicenter cohort surve y conducted in 63 departments of either internal medicine or infectious dis eases in France. It included 26,497 HIV-infected patients, of whom 4,465 (1 6.8%) presented coinfection due to hepatitis C virus. The following paramet ers were studied for the year 1997: total number of deaths, number of death s related to either AIDS, cirrhosis hepatocellular carcinoma, or other caus es. Results. - Among the 26,497 patients, 543 deaths (incidence: 2%) were obser ved in 1997; 543 deaths were due to AIDS (incidence: 1.7%), 36 to cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma (incidence: 0.13%), and 48 (incidence: 0.1 8%) to another cause. In the subgroup including 4,465 HIV-HCV-coinfected pa tients, 29 deaths (incidence: 0.64%) were due to either HCV-related cirrhos is or hepatocellular carcinoma. These results were compared with those of a previous similar survey conducted in 1995, before the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. The only significant difference is the dramatic re gression of deaths due to AIDS. Conclusion. - The impact of hepatitis C virus on the mortality among HIV-in fected patients whose follow-up took place in departments of either interna l medicine or infectious diseases in France was very low in 1997. The expec ted increase in the life span in these patients could modify these results in the future, due to recent improvements in the HIV infection treatment. ( C) 1999 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.