Drug use, HBV, HVC and HIV/AIDS
Dear Shirla,
I NOTE WITH interest your ‘HIV News in Capsule’ touching on Hepatitis C co-infection with HIV, coming out of AIDS 2009 held in Cape Town South Africa.

I find the topic very interesting, and would like you to share more on this with readers. Perhaps a detailed report would be useful, since I believe there are more ‘white-collar’ drug users in homes, offices and some educational institutions than the ordinary persons out there, commonly referred to as ‘junkies’.

I fear, many persons, particularly teenagers and young adults experimenting with drugs, are abysmally unaware of the real dangers of such involvement; how drug use can trigger HCV, HBV and HIV/AIDS.

Please share whatever information you have so our young people can be enlightened, and avoid putting themselves at risk for these dangerous diseases.
Concerned mother/educator

Dear Concerned Mother,
Thanks for your interest shown. Presented hereunder is a detailed and interesting extract of a publication by the (US) National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) last updated on May 6, 2009. This document is highly recommended for reading, not only by teenagers and young adults, but everyone in the home.

Shirla
“HEPATITIS C Virus (HCV), the leading cause of liver disease, is highly prevalent among Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) and often co-occurs with HIV; Hepatitis B (HBV) is also common among drug abusers.

These are two of several viruses that cause inflammation of the liver. Chronic infection with HCV or HBV can result in cirrhosis (liver scarring) or primary liver cancer. A vaccine does not yet exist for HCV; however, HBV infection can be prevented by an effective vaccine.

HCV is highly transmissible through blood-borne exposure. NIDA-funded studies have found that within three years of beginning injection drug use, most IDUs contract HCV — and up to 90 per cent of HIV-infected IDUs may also be infected with HCV.

The effects of HCV infection on HIV disease are not well understood; however, the course of HCV infection is accelerated in dually infected individuals, with higher rates of progressive liver disease and death in those with both HIV and HCV than in those with HCV alone.

While treatment can be effective, management of co-occurring HIV and HCV presents certain challenges. HIV therapy can slow progression of liver disease in co-infected persons, but treatment response rates to HCV therapy in these individuals are reduced. Assessment of stage of disease is important to the timing of therapy initiation for both infections, as is long-term medical follow-up in order to improve quality of life.”
(NIDA is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a component of the US Department of Health and Human Services)