Abstract
Background We investigated the global threat of co-infection of severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to patients living with another prevalent viral infection HIV. We have analyzed symptom status, treatment, and outcome of co-infected individuals. Methods An extensive literature search of PubMed, preprint databases (bioRxiv, medRxiv, and preprints), and ClinicalTrials.gov was conducted from 1 December 2019 to 28 February 2021. Ninety-two potential studies involving 39,461 HIV and SARS-CoV-2 co-infected patients were analyzed with details of severity, their treatment, and the outcomes. Results A total of 39,461 cases of people living with HIV have reported co-infection with SARS-CoV-2 worldwide. Of these coinfected individuals, the symptom status for 3,213 patients (~8%) was available, out of which 44% were severely/critically ill. The collated data show the fatality rate for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and SARS-CoV-2 coinfection to be 2.4% and a large proportion was found to have several comorbidities. The most commonly administered antiretroviral therapy to the people living with HIV was tenofovir/emtricitabine; these drugs are already in phase 3 clinical trials for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We observed that majority of co-infected patients who survived were those on tenofovir/emtricitabine combination drug therapy for HIV. Conclusions The current study demonstrates that patients with HIV may have worse outcomes due to COVID-19 than the general population. However, the HIV/SARS-CoV-2 coinfection needs to be analyzed across multiple countries with a high burden of HIV, and with a much larger cohort to gain a better understanding of the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on people living with HIV.
Highlights
We investigated the global threat of co-infection of severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to patients living with another prevalent viral infection human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
The HIV/SARS-CoV-2 coinfection needs to be analyzed across multiple countries with a high burden of HIV, and with a much larger cohort to gain a better understanding of the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on people living with HIV
USA, India, and Brazil are the countries with the highest cases of COVID-19.7 these countries and many others especially in subSaharan Africa have a significant burden of HIV 8 that will inevitably result in what Shiau et al described as HIV and SARS-CoV-2 syndemic.[9]
Summary
An extensive literature search of PubMed, preprint databases (bioRxiv, medRxiv, and preprints), and ClinicalTrials.gov was conducted from 1 December 2019 to 28 February 2021. Ninety-two potential studies involving 39,461 HIV and SARS-CoV-2 co-infected patients were analyzed with details of severity, their treatment, and the outcomes. A detailed literature search was performed, and the reports were taken into consideration from 1st December 2019 to 28th February 2021. A comprehensive literature search from PubMed, preprint databases (bioRxiv, medRxiv, and Preprints), reference lists, and ClinicalTrials.gov was done to identify articles for inclusion. The keywords/subject headings used for the relevant literature were “HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) AND COVID-19 (Coronavirus)”, OR HIV and SARS-CoV-2. Descriptive analysis was conducted as per the ‘rapid review’ methodology.[20] The rapid review simplify the components of the systematic review process to produce information in a short period of time.[20]
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