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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Virology. Aug 12, 2015; 4(3): 255-264
Published online Aug 12, 2015. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v4.i3.255
Insights into human immunodeficiency virus-hepatitis B virus co-infection in India
Runu Chakravarty, Ananya Pal
Runu Chakravarty, Ananya Pal, ICMR Virus Unit, Kolkata, ID and BG Hospital Campus, GB 4, Kolkata 700010, West Bengal, India
Author contributions: Chakravarty R and Pal A reviewed the available literature; Pal A wrote the manuscript; Chakravarty R critically revised the draft with significant intellectual inputs.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Runu Chakravarty, PhD, ICMR Virus Unit, Kolkata, ID and BG Hospital Campus, GB 4, 1st Floor, 57 Dr. Suresh Chandra Banerjee Road, Kolkata 700010, West Bengal, India. runugc@gmail.com
Telephone: +91-33-23537425 Fax: +91-33-23537424
Received: October 28, 2014
Peer-review started: October 31, 2014
First decision: December 12, 2014
Revised: April 21, 2015
Accepted: May 7, 2015
Article in press: May 8, 2015
Published online: August 12, 2015
Processing time: 288 Days and 13.6 Hours
Abstract

Shared routes of transmission lead to frequent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-hepatitis B virus (HBV) co-infection in a host which results in about 10% of HIV positive individuals to have chronic hepatitis B infection worldwide. In post-antiretroviral therapy era, liver diseases have emerged as the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected individuals and HBV co-infection have become the major health issue among this population particularly from the regions with endemic HBV infection. In setting of HIV-HBV co-infection, HIV significantly impacts the natural history of HBV infection, its disease profile and the treatment outcome in negative manner. Moreover, the epidemiological pattern of HBV infection and the diversity in HBV genome (genotypic and phenotypic) are also varied in HIV co-infected subjects as compared to HBV mono-infected individuals. Several reports on the abovementioned issues are available from developed parts of the world as well as from sub-Saharan African countries. In contrast, most of these research areas remained unexplored in India despite having considerable burden of HIV and HBV infections. This review discusses present knowledge from the studies on HIV-HBV co-infection in India and relevant reports from different parts of the world. Issues needed for the future research relevant to HIV-HBV co-infection in India are also highlighted here, including a call for further investigations on this field of study.

Keywords: Human immunodeficiency virus-hepatitis B virus co-infection; India; Genetic diversity; Liver diseases

Core tip: Various parameters of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection including molecular epidemiology, disease profile and treatment outcome remains unexplored in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive individuals from India, a major reservoir for HBV and HIV infection of the globe. Only few reports particularly from eastern Indian HIV-HBV co-infected cohort represented some interesting findings in context to the global reports on this co-infection. Comparing with the available worldwide studies, issues that should be addressed for research in India are identified and a call for further investigations on HIV-HBV co-infection in India is highlighted through this article. This is needed for proper management of HIV-HBV co-infected Indian population.