Introduction

Yves Benhamou1,*, Dominique Salmon2

1Hopital Pitie–Salpetriere, Service d’Hepato-Gastroenterologie, 27 boulevard de l’Hopital, 75013 Paris, France2Hopital Cochin, Paris, France

Because the routes of transmission of HIV and the

hepatitis B and C viruses (HBV and HCV) are similar, co-

infection is relatively common. In Europe, an estimated 35

and 8% of HIV-infected people are also infected with HCV

and HBV, respectively. Worldwide, several million people

are co-infected with HBV and HIV, or HCV and HIV.

Although there is little evidence that hepatitis B or C

infection affect HIV disease progression, HIV does affect

chronic HCV and HBV disease. In fact, since the advent of

HAART, infection with HBV or HCV and the related liver

damage has become one of the most important causes of

mortality and morbidity among HIV-infected patients.

Despite this, a minority of HCV/HIV and HBV/HIV co-

infected patients are treated for hepatitis.

Recently, advances have been made in the manage-

ment of hepatitis and HIV co-infection, and our

knowledge continues to expand. However, until this

year there was no clear consensus among experts in the

fields of hepatology, infectious diseases and virology on

treatment of co-infections and patient management. This

was the impetus behind the first European Consensus

Conference on the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B and

C in HIV Co-infected Patients, which took place in Paris

in March 2005. The meeting brought together many of

the world’s foremost experts in the field of HIV and

hepatitis infection to review:

0168-8278/$30.00 q 2005 European Association for the Study of the Liver. Pub

doi:10.1016/j.jhep.2005.11.003

* Corresponding author. Tel.: C33 1 4216 1041; fax: C33 1 4216 1425.

E-mail address: ybenhamou@teaser.fr (Y. Benhamou).

† The reasons to treat viral hepatitis in HIV co-infected

patients in the HAART era.

† How viral hepatitis should be diagnosed and how

disease severity should be assessed in HIV infected

patients.

† Current treatment options and how these differ

between mono-infected and co-infected patients.

† Which patients should be treated.

† How anti-hepatitis treatment should be monitored.

† How to manage end-stage liver disease.

An independent Jury Panel subsequently produced a

consensus statement based on the issues discussed through-

out the meeting This statement was published in May

2005—summarising the main conclusions and recommen-

dations from the conference [1].

This supplement to the Journal of Hepatology represents

the key content from the presentations given at the European

Consensus Conference on the Treatment of Chronic

Hepatitis B and C in HIV Co-infected Patients. As such,

this supplement provides a state-of-the-art and comprehen-

sive information resource on the current knowledge of the

treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C in HIV co-infected

patients, which we hope will stimulate new ideas in all who

read it.

References

[1] Alberti A, Clumeck N, Collins S, Gerlich W, Lundgren J, Palu G, et al.

Short statement of the First European Consensus Conference on the

treatment of chronic Hepatitis B and C in HIV co-infected patients.

J Hepatol 2005;42:615–624.

Journal of Hepatology 44 (2006) S1

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