Infection with an apparently harmless, newly recognized virus seems to interfere with HIV, slowing its progression and prolonging survival of AIDS patients. What isn’t known is exactly how the virus, called GBV-C or hepatitis G, inhibits HIV.
The findings were reported in two studies in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine. They confirm earlier, smaller studies that showed that patients with both HIV and hepatitis G lived longer than those infected with HIV alone.
The Iowa study looked at 362 HIV-infected patients treated between 1988 and 1999. About 40 percent, 144 patients, were also infected with hepatitis G. A second study of 197 HIV patients conducted at Medical School Hanover in Germany also found significantly longer survival for the 33 HIV patients with hepatitis G, even after more potent AIDS drugs became available in 1996.
