Drs. Curtis Cooper (University of Ottawa), Marina Klein (McGill University) and Mark Hull (BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS) have led a CTN initiative to develop new Canadian HIV-hepatitis C (HCV) treatment guidelines. “It’s a document for clinicians, but it goes beyond that too,” says Dr. Cooper. “It will be of value to epidemiologists, social scientists, basic scientists, and people living with HIV and hepatitis C.”
Developed through the CTN HIV-Hepatitis C Management and Treatment Guidelines Working Group, the guidelines include recommendations for evaluating co-infected patients, addressing barriers to care, selecting treatments, determining timing and addressing drug-drug interactions.
In addition to filling an important knowledge gap, these guidelines come at a time where many new HCV treatments are currently being tested. “One of the strengths of the document is our extensive review of current evidence for screening, treatment and drug interactions,” says lead writer Dr. Hull.
The CTN hosted a symposium on the draft guidelines at the 22nd Annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research (CAHR 2013) in Vancouver in April. The authors submitted the final draft to the Canadian Journal of Infectious Disease and Medical Microbiology in May.
