Absence of occult HCV infection in patients experiencing an immunodepression condition

The aim of our study was to evaluate the presence of occult HCV infection in two settings of patients experiencing immunosuppression: patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and those with onco-haematological disease. Sixty consecutive HIV-positive/anti-HCV-negative/HCV RNA-negative patients (HIV group) and 32 consecutive anti-HCV/HCV RNA negative patients with an onco-haematological disease first undergoing chemotherapy (Onco-haematological group) were enrolled. HCV-RNA was sought by real time RT-PCR in plasma and Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell (PBMC) samples obtained at enrolment and during follow-up, in the patients in the HIV group every three months and in those in the onco-haematological group at months 1 and 3 during chemotherapy and then every three months after treatment discontinuation. No plasma or PBMC sample collected at enrolment and during the follow-up in the HIV and onco-haematological groups was HCV RNA positive. The results of this study rule out the existence of occult HCV infection in patients with strong immunosuppression due to different conditions, HIV infection and onco-haematological diseases.