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Can one hepatitis infection heal the other?
This provocative question has frequently been debated. A recent study from Hannover Medical School in Germany certainly lends support to this hypothesis.
Dr. Deterding and colleagues report on a group of 17 patients with chronic hepatitis C who also developed an acute episode of acute hepatitis A. Their findings were published in the Journal of Hepatology (December 2006).
These investigators found that none of these chronic hepatitis C patients developed fulminant liver failure. In addition, they demonstrated that while hepatitis C could be detected in 84% of those without acute hepatitis A, it was detected only in 65% of those who developed the co-infection. This suggests that the presence of hepatitis A suppressed the hepatitis C virus.
Once the acute hepatitis A had resolved, 6 out of the nine patients showed increased hepatitis C replication, whereas two of the patients continued to test negative for hepatitis C.
These authors concluded that acute hepatitis A virus infection inhibits hepatitis C virus replication and may even lead to its eradication. In addition, they noted that fulminant hepatitis A is uncommon in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection.
