Insights into Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Hepatitis B Virus Co-Infection in India

Below:  Human immunodeficiency virus-hepatitis B virus co-infection: World vs Indian scenario. A: Prevalence of this co-infection is elucidated from most of the developed parts of the world as well as from sub-Saharan African countries as multi-centre and multi-cohort study. The few regional reports available from various regions of India are also represented, highlighting the need for multicentric study; B: Most of the research areas remain unexplored in India as compared to the worldwide reports; C: Mutations in hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome (four open-reading frames) reported among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-HBV co-infected Indian patients. BCP: Basal core promoter.

Shared routes of transmission lead to frequent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-hepatitis B virus (HBV) co-infection in a host which results in about 10% of HIV positive individuals to have chronic hepatitis B infection worldwide. In post-antiretroviral therapy era, liver diseases have emerged as the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected individuals and HBV co-infection have become the major health issue among this population particularly from the regions with endemic HBV infection. In setting of HIV-HBV co-infection, HIV significantly impacts the natural history of HBV infection, its disease profile and the treatment outcome in negative manner. Moreover, the epidemiological pattern of HBV infection and the diversity in HBV genome (genotypic and phenotypic) are also varied in HIV co-infected subjects as compared to HBV mono-infected individuals. Several reports on the abovementioned issues are available from developed parts of the world as well as from sub-Saharan African countries. In contrast, most of these research areas remained unexplored in India despite having considerable burden of HIV and HBV infections. This review discusses present knowledge from the studies on HIV-HBV co-infection in India and relevant reports from different parts of the world. Issues needed for the future research relevant to HIV-HBV co-infection in India are also highlighted here, including a call for further investigations on this field of study.

Read more at:   http://ht.ly/R2vEm HT @NCBI