In a study involving 2,400 men who have sex with men who were also enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, researchers report that men with HIV who were treated effectively with HIV therapy were the least likely (80 percent less likely) to get infected with HBV over a median follow-up of approximately 9.5 years.
Previous studies of individuals with HIV have suggested that HIV drug regimens that included drugs active against hepatitis B virus (HBV) can decrease the risk of infection with the liver-damaging HBV. Now, in a study involving 2,400 men who have sex with men who were also enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, researchers report that men with HIV who were treated effectively with HIV therapy—defined as no detectable HIV virus in the blood—were the least likely (80 percent less likely) to get infected with HBV over a median follow-up of approximately 9.5 years, compared with men with HIV who were not on HIV therapy or men who had detectable HIV virus while on HIV therapy. In fact, the men on effective HIV therapy had the same risk of HBV infection as the men who did not have HIV.
A report of the finding, published in the October issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, is based on analysis of information on men who have sex with men who were not infected with HBV when they first enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, which began in 1984 in four U.S. cities, 12 years before effective HIV therapy became available.
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