Liver Fibrosis Progression
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of HIV, HCV, and of antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV, on rates of liver fibrosis progression (LFP) among ART naïve HIV-infected individuals with and without viral hepatitis with CD4+ cell counts above 500 cells/mm3. This will be achieved by comparing liver fibrosis progression using Fibroscan technology over an average follow-up period of 4 years for participants randomly assigned to the early ART and the deferred ART groups of the START (INSIGHT 001) study.