Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Given similar acquisition risk factors, hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection is common among people living with HIV. With increasing life expectancy and reduced mortality from AIDS-related illnesses, HCV and its long-term sequalae, such as liver disease, have become leading causes of death in this population. There is emerging evidence suggesting that chronic HCV infection can also increase the risk of chronic, non-liver illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular illnesses. New HCV medications, called direct-acting antiviral therapies, are now available in Canada and can cure HCV infection in as little as 8 weeks. To date, there is has been no research in Canada that has examined how these new medications can lower the risk of developing these important chronic non-liver disease and reduce health-care resource utilization among people co-infected with both HIV and HCV. In this research study, we used data from a population-based administrative-linked cohort, the British Columbia Hepatitis Testers' Cohort, to study how frequently six important non-liver illnesses occur between those who were treated for chronic HCV and age and gender matched individuals who were not, since the availability of these new HCV treatments since 2014. We believe this research program is important as it will help to inform clinical decision making for HCV patient care where costly new treatments are often reserved to those with greatest risk of liver disease, without further realization that these treatments may also reduce the risk of non-liver illness.