TheBodyPro | What to know about hepatitis B when switching to tenofovir-sparing antiretroviral regimens - European AIDS Treatment Group

TheBodyPro clinical overviewAs we more frequently prescribe injectables, two-drug therapies, and other novel antiretroviral regimens, a growing proportion of those regimens lack tenofovir. Because tenofovir is used to treat hepatitis B virus (HBV) and is partially protective against new HBV infection, providers need to consider the risk of new or reactivated HBV before switching a patient to a tenofovir-sparing regimen. “I think we are very much in, and entering, an era where increasingly more therapeutic options for antiretroviral therapy and PrEP are going to be without tenofovir,” said H. Nina Kim, M. D., M. Sc., a professor of medicine at University of Washington’s Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Kim co-authored a viewpoint paper this May in Clinical Infectious Diseases highlighting the issue so that clinicians can protect patients against potentially harmful reactivations and new HBV infections. “Many of these reactivations may be subclinical with mild rise in liver enzymes,” Kim said.