Christel Pissier
The course of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection varies widely after initial exposure. Two-third of individuals have persistent viremia and develop chronic hepatitis C. In HCV chronically-infected patients, spontaneous HCV clearance occurs in approximately 0.5%/individual/year. All the case reports describing this fact are associated with changes in host immunity. We report a case of HCV RNA spontaneous clearance concurrently with hepatitis B virus (HBV) reactivation in a patient infected with the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and chronically-infected with HCV. Serum HCV RNA became undetectable at diagnosis of HBV reactivation. Nine months after acute hepatitis, serum HBV DNA was no more detectable but HCV RNA load was found to rise again to its pre-hepatitis level.
