Health Canada suggests that 250,000 Canadians are currently living with hepatitis C and up to 30 per cent of those living with HIV in Canada also contend with hepatitis C. However, those that are co-infected are often not included in key studies evaluating HIV and HCV medications. As a result, uncertainty often guides treatment decisions. 

In response to this situation Drs. Curtis Cooper (U Ottawa), Marina Klein (McGill) and Mark Hull (BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS) have led a CTN initiative to develop new Canadian HIV-hepatitis C treatment guidlines. The guidelines include recommendations for evaluating co-infected patients, addressing barriers to care, selecting treatments, determining treatment timing and addressing drug-drug interactions. In addition to filling an important knowledge gap, these guidelines come at a unique moment in time where many new hepatitis C (HCV) treatments are currently being tested.

On April 12 in Vancouver at the 22nd Annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research – CAHR 2013, the CTN hosted a lunch symposium entitled “2013 CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network HIV-HCV Co-infection Guidelines: Pre-Finalization Feedback Session.”  At the event the authors asked for and received feedback to a draft version of the guidelines. Right afterwards the CTN Communications team caught up with two of the authors, Drs. Curtis Cooper and Mark Hall, and asked them to provide a little more information about the guidelines and to talk about the goals and challenges of this health initiative. The interview is below.

If you have any questions, or wish to have a draft copy of the guidelines for review please send a message to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .