HIV and HCV

If you have HIV, you also may have been exposed to the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and it is possible for you to have both HIV and hepatitis C. Having both diseases is known as a co-infection, which presents unique challenges to your health, including making you susceptible to other diseases.

At Mount Sinai, HIV and liver disease experts work together to provide compassionate integrated care to help you deal with the effect that these diseases and their treatments may have on your body.

• Hepatitis C is a virus that can damage your liver slowly over time.
• HIV is the virus that causes HIV disease and AIDS.

As a leader in caring for those affected by HIV and liver diseases, Mount Sinai has exceptional resources to help you. Our physicians and researchers have published many scientific studies that have made major contributions to our understanding of HIV as well as to the development of treatment and prevention strategies for HIV. In addition, we are pioneers in the treatment of liver diseases, including hepatitis C.

Comprehensive Care

Our HIV and liver disease specialists, mental health providers, and social workers provide you with the highest quality of coordinated care to treat your co-infection. We bring together our liver transplant and liver cancer teams to form your treatment team. We work together to provide you with the expertise and services you need.

HIV and hepatitis C co-infection is responsible for an increase in hospitalizations and has become a leading cause of complications and mortality among those who are infected with HIV. Liver diseases resulting from hepatitis C infection are responsible for 50 percent of all deaths of people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States.

New Developments

Our specialists use highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) along with other drugs in a cocktail of medications to improve and extend the lives of those living with HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C.

Mount Sinai conducts clinical research for infectious disease and liver disease including HIV and hepatitis C co-infection, and we offer you access to experimental treatments that may help you before these medications are broadly available.