Patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection who were treated with tenofovir had a lower risk of developing severe COVID-19 illness than those treated with entecavir, according to a study presented at the EASL International Liver Congress (ILC) 2021.
Among 4,736 patients with HBV identified from a Spanish database, patients treated with tenofovir were significantly less likely to develop severe COVID-19 illness after infection compared with those who were on entecavir (6 percent vs 36 percent; p<0.01). [ILC 2021, abstract PO-1449]
The risk of ICU admission was also lower in tenofovir-treated patients than those receiving entecavir (0 percent vs 10 percent; p=0.01).
Similarly, the incidence of ventilator support (3 percent vs 20 percent; p<0.01), length of hospital stay (3.1 vs 10.8 days; p<0.01), and death rates (1.5 percent vs 10 percent; p=0.08) were all substantially reduced in tenofovir-treated patients vs the entacavir group.
“Tenofovir seems to exert a protective effect in patients with chronic HBV infected by COVID-19,” said lead author Dr Beatriz Mateos Muñoz of the Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal at the University of Alcalá in Madrid, Spain.
