Abstract

The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has spread across the world within months of its first description in Wuhan, China in December 2019, resulting in an unprecedented global health emergency. Whilst Europe and North America are the current epicentres of infection, the global health community are preparing for the potential effects of this new disease on the African continent. Modelling studies predict that factors such as youthful and rural population may be protective in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in the World Health Organisation (WHO) African Region, however, with 220 million infections and 4.6 million hospitalisations predicted in the first year of the pandemic alone, fragile health systems could still be placed under significant strain. Furthermore, subsequent disruptions to the provision of services for people living with HIV, or at risk of acquiring HIV, are predicted to lead to an extra 500,000 adult HIV deaths and a 2-fold increase in mother to child transmission of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020-2021. Ignoring these predictions may have severe consequences and we risk “stepping back in time” in AIDS-related deaths to numbers seen over a decade ago. Reflecting on our current experience of the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda, we explore the potential impact of public health measures implemented to mitigate spread of COVID-19 on the HIV care continuum, and suggest areas of focus for HIV services, policy makers and governments to urgently address in order to minimise the collateral damage.

Highlights

  • Covid confirmed cases and deaths updated to current global figures

  • Article “a” added to “younger and more rural population”, “Though the article makes reference to the fact that Uganda may have successfully curbed the spread of COVID-19, there is limited evidence such as delayed community transmission, limited number of cases, reducing new infections to support the statement “ was added

  • Covid 19 challenges and HIV care continuum in Uganda: PLWHIV changed to people living with HIV (PLHIV) (People living with HIV) throughout the paper, “and instituted control measures” added to sentence in paragraph 2

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Summary

24 Mar 2021 version 1

1. Tolulope Tokunyori Oladele , National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Abuja, Nigeria. Any reports and responses or comments on the article can be found at the end of the article. Keywords COVID-19, HIV care, PLWHIV, Opportunistic infections, sub-Saharan Africa. This article is included in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) collection

Introduction
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10. PEPFAR
Findings
13. Msuya J: Horizontal and Vertical Delivery of Health Services
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