HIV and Hep C coinfection

Dear Ask The Doctor: Hello my name is tane i am an adult male age 47 i am living with hiv and now i have been diagnosed with hepatitus c my doctor told me about a treatment using a medication called peginterferon alfa 2b injection, he does not nessisarily recomend it so i have been doing some research online, so basicaly my main question is since my t cell count is already low at 875 i am concerned that this treatment may reduce my t cell count so any info i could get from you good or bad would help me make up my mind so thank you in advance for any info you could give me

Dear Tane:

I know how worried you are about this treatment. Let me reassure you that HIV infected patients are commonly co infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Peginterferon alfa-2a or alfa-2b in conjunction with oral ribavirin is the regimen of choice for the treatment of chronic HCV infection in patients who have not previously received interferon therapy, and the combination regimen is recommended for patients who fail to achieve a sustained virologic response.

Like any other medication, Peginterferon has quite a few side effects such as anxiety, depression, colitis, viral infection, neutropenia etc. the most common are hematologic abnormalities (e.g., anemia, neutropenia). Incidences of adverse hematologic effects appear to be greater in patients receiving concomitant therapy with peginterferon alfa and oral ribavirin than in those receiving peginterferon alfa monotherapy. If you start having side effects during the treatment, your doctor will withdraw you from it. Risk vs. benefit should be evaluated first and in my opinion if your doctor suggested this treatment, he will sure follow your white blood cell count and differential to avoid a decrease in their concentration. I wish you the best.