Mortality is not increased in SARS‐CoV‐2 infected persons with hepatitis C virus infection

Butt, Adeel A.; Yan, Peng; Chotani, Rashid A.; Shaikh, Obaid S.

BACKGROUND: Impact of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection upon hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and mortality in persons with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is unknown. METHODS: We used the Electronically Retrieved Cohort of HCV infected Veterans (ERCHIVES) database to determine the impact of HCV infection upon the rates of acute care hospitalization, ICU admission and all‐cause mortality. We identified Veterans with chronic HCV infection and propensity score matched controls without HCV in ERCHIVES. We excluded those with HIV or hepatitis B virus coinfection. RESULTS: We identified 975 HCV+ and 975 propensity score matched HCV− persons with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. Mean FIB‐4 score (±SD) was higher in those with HCV (1.9 ± 2.1 vs 1.2 ± 0.9; P < .0001) and a larger proportion of those with HCV had cirrhosis (8.1% vs 1.4%; P < .0001). A larger proportion of HCV+ were hospitalized compared to HCV‐ (24.0% vs 18.3%; P = .002); however, those requiring ICU care and mortality were also similar in both groups (6.6% vs 6.5%; P = .9). Among those with FIB‐4 score of 1.45‐3.25, hospitalization rate/1000‐person‐years was 41.4 among HCV+ and 20.2 among HCV−, while among those with a FIB‐4 > 3.25, the rate‐ was 9.4 and 0.6 (P < .0001). There was no difference in all‐cause mortality by age, gender, FIB‐4 score, number of comorbidities or treatment with remdesivir and/or systemic corticosteroids. CONCLUSIONS: HCV+ persons with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection are more likely to be admitted to a hospital. The hospitalization rate also increased with higher FIB‐4 score. However, admission to an ICU and mortality are not different between those with and without HCV infection.