Media advice
Thursday 8 April 2021
What
The COVID-19 pandemic affects people with or at risk for HIV, both indirectly, through interference with HIV treatment and prevention services, and directly by threatening individual health. An effective response to these dual pandemics requires unprecedented collaboration to accelerate basic and clinical research, as well as implementation science to quickly implement evidence-based strategies in the real world. This message comes from a review article compiled by Anthony S. Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and colleagues in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
By disrupting critical health care services, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens significant progress in reducing the global burden of HIV. The authors note that the toll of COVID-19 on the HIV pandemic can be mitigated by increasing access to HIV treatment, for example by prescribing medication for several months and ensuring that HIV testing and prevention services are maintained.
There are still many questions about whether people with HIV are more at risk for infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and for the development of severe COVID-19, as evidence has been mixed to date. The infection rates with SARS-CoV-2 are similar in people with and without HIV. However, populations that are excessively affected by HIV, including black / African American and Hispanic / Latinx populations, are also at greater risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 infection and developing severe COVID-19. Several factors contribute to the burden on these populations, including systemic inequalities in health, socioeconomic inequalities, and a higher incidence of comorbidities.
Although HIV infection does not appear to increase the risk of severe COVID-19, increasing evidence shows that specific comorbidities in people with HIV are associated with a greater COVID-19 severity. Even when HIV is well treated with treatment, people with HIV carry a significant burden of numerous comorbidities, many of which have also emerged as risk factors for severe COVID-19. These comorbidities include certain cancers, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Accelerated development and clinical testing of prevention and treatment strategies are urgently needed to mitigate the composition of the HIV and COVID-19 pandemics. This includes basic research on the interactions between HIV and SARS-CoV-2 at both the cellular and molecular level, as well as clinical studies to evaluate the outcomes for people with HIV and SARS-CoV-2 co-infections, including the impact of comorbidities. .
Article
RW Eisinger, AM Lerner and AS Fauci. HIV / Aids in the era of COVID-19: a combination of two pandemics. Journal of Infectious Diseases DOI: 10.1093 / infdis / jiab114 (2021).
Who
NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, Managing Director, is available for comment.
NIAID conducts and supports research – at NIH, across the United States and worldwide – to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat these diseases. News reports, fact sheets and other NIAID related material are available on the NIAID website.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):
NIH, the country’s medical research agency, contains 27 institutes and centers and is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research, investigating the causes, treatments, and drugs for common and rare diseases. Visit www.nih.gov for more information on NIH and its programs.
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