Short statement of the first european consensus conference on the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C in HIV co-infected patients (vol 42, pg 615, 2005)

Despite recent advances in the management of hepatitis and HIV co-infection, there is no clear consensus among hepatology, infectious diseases and virology experts on treatment of co-infections and patient management. This encouraged the organisation of a European Consensus Conference to review current knowledge on the treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C in HIV co-infected patients, with the view to developing this consensus statement. An organising committee drafted questions to be addressed at the conference, and following 2-days of presentations and discussions, an independent Jury Panel assessed the evidence and prepared this statement with the aim of addressing eight questions: •What are the reasons to treat viral hepatitis in HIV co-infected patients in the HAART era? •How should viral hepatitis be diagnosed and how should disease severity be assessed in HIV-infected patients? •What are the current treatment options? •Which patients should be treated and when? •How should co-infected patients be treated (treatment algorithms)? •How should anti-hepatitis treatment be monitored? •How should end-stage liver disease be managed? •What are the most important areas for future research?