Study reveals the impact of HIV on COVID-19 disease

A new study found that during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic people living with HIV were less likely to die from COVID than persons without HIV. Hospitalized patients with HIV and COVID were less likely to require mechanical ventilation and were less likely to die, according to the study published in AIDS Patient Care and STDs, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

However, when Emma Kapan-Lewis, MD, from HIV Services, NYC Health and Hospitals, and coauthors extended the study period out to a full year of the COVID-19 pandemic they found different results. "Levels of hospitalization and overall mortality were at least twice as high in people living with HIV versus people without HIV," state the authors.

"However, among hospitalized patients, levels of mortality were comparable between people living with HIV and people without HIV." The authors propose possible reasons for these different findings early in the pandemic and during the extended study period.