Acute hepatitis C in HIV-infected individuals: recommendations from the European AIDS Treatment Network (NEAT) consensus conference

There is increasing awareness of an ongoing epidemic of acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in HIV-infected MSM. The epidemiology has been reviewed in this journal recently [1]; however, there is a lack of guidance on the management of acute HCV infection in HIV-infected individuals. To address this issue, the European AIDS Treatment Network (NEAT) invited members of the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) hepatitis group, the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), the European Study Group on Viral Hepatitis of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, the European AIDS Treatment group and other experts to draw up a consensus statement at a conference held in Paris, France, in May 2010. Four working groups prepared draft guidelines for consideration at the conference on case definition and diagnosis; transmission risk and epidemiology; pathogenesis and natural history; and acute HCV infection management in the HIV-infected population. A literature search using the PubMed database of the National Library of Medicine and abstract databases of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, the Liver Meetings of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease and EASL was utilized by all groups. Statements and recommendations were graded by the strength of recommendation and level of evidence (Table 1) [2]. A consensus was reached if 80% or more of the participants were in favour.