Really Rapid Review — CROI 2017, Seattle

NEJM Journal Watch

Really Rapid Review — CROI 2017, Seattle
Paul E. Sax, MD

The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) returned to Seattle this past week for its 24th meeting. It’s the 4th time CROI has been held in Seattle, an excellent city for a meeting of this size, which includes “only” 4200 people. The convention center is pleasant and user-friendly — big but not cavernous, actually encourages interactions with colleagues — and there are numerous hotels and restaurants within walking distance, plus more Starbucks per square foot than any place on the planet.

From a content perspective, the big change for CROI 2017 was the return of numerous studies on antiretroviral therapy, studies involving both approved and investigational agents. The last several years, by contrast, had relative dominance of pre-exposure prophylaxis and hepatitis C studies. With PrEP, one had the sense at the meeting that we’re now waiting for the next strategies (long-acting injectables, for example).

As for hepatitis C, well that’s been all but solved (except for the implementation part). How do you improve on 97%-plus cured. Hooray!

Continue reading....

Links

Conference Coverage
Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI)
February 13-16, 2017, Seattle WA
NATAP
hivandhepatitis.com
http://www.aidsmap.com/croi-2017
http://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/croi

HCV Screening Shouldn't Just Focus on At-Risk Populations

HCV Screening Shouldn't Just Focus on At-Risk Populations
FEB 20, 2017 | CAITLYN FITZPATRICK

At the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2017) in Seattle, Washington, researchers from MedStar Health Research Institute in Maryland presented new data on hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive non-baby boomers.

It’s widely acknowledged that those individuals belonging to the baby boomer age group (those born between 1946 and 1964) are at higher risk of acquiring HCV infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these individuals are five times more likely to be infected with HCV. However, other at-risk populations may not be getting adequately tested for the virus.

Continue reading....

Wide Use of New HCV Drugs Prevents New Cases

Wide Use of New HCV Drugs Prevents New Cases
by Michael Smith
North American Correspondent, MedPage Today

SEATTLE -- Unrestricted use of new direct-acting agents against hepatitis C (HCV) can markedly reduce the rate of new infections, a researcher said here.

That's based on analysis of what happened in the Netherlands among gay men with both HIV and HCV when unlimited access to the new, highly effective agents was rolled out in 2015, according to Bart Rijnders, MD, PhD, of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Uptake of the drugs was substantial and the rate of new HCV infections was cut in half, Rijnders told reporters at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI).
Continue reading....

Related
New hepatitis C infections among HIV-positive gay men drop by half after direct-acting antiviral roll-out in Netherlands
A little more than a year after the Netherlands instituted a policy allowing unrestricted access to direct-acting antivirals for the treatment of hepatitis C, researchers have already seen a dramatic decline in acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections among one at-risk population, HIV-positive men who have sex with men.

These findings were reported on Thursday at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2017) in Seattle, in a session that also included presentations on rising incidence of HCV infection among HIV-positive gay men in San Diego and predictions about eradication of HIV/HCV co-infection in France.
Continue reading...

Conference Coverage
Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI)
February 13-16, 2017, Seattle WA
NATAP

hivandhepatitis.com

http://www.aidsmap.com/croi-2017

http://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/croi