key: cord-0741564-cnxkpckr
authors: Adadi, Parise; Kanwugu, Osman N.
title: Living with HIV in the time of COVID‐19: A glimpse of hope
date: 2020-06-09
journal: J Med Virol
DOI: 10.1002/jmv.26118
sha: a5f94834aea5b3ec9adf3bb2ad91bb7db39b7b5a
doc_id: 741564
cord_uid: cnxkpckr

As at the time of writing, the global confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) stands at 5,075,181 with 330,981 deaths and 1,936,331 recoveries1 . According to the Canter for Disease Control, the aged and individuals with compromised immune systems due to infections (i.e., human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV), etc.) are at higher risk of contracting the COVID-19. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

pandemic, as they have been urged by the CDC to have at least a 30-day supply of their HIV medicines. 2 In contrast, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted HIV treatment programs in South Africa and may increase mortality as a result of health facilities being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. Similarly, 19% of HIV-infected patients were unable to get antiretroviral medications (ART) refills due to the pandemic. 5 According to reports, more than 100 Russian AIDS prevention and control centers have been converted to COVID-19 treatment centers. 6 Similar conversions might have happened in other countries, thus denying patients access to HIV medication and therapies. An earlier report had predicted that the pandemic would have adverse effects on health programs for HIV, Tuberculosis (TB), and malaria in low and middle economies. The authors also mentioned that in high burden settings, HIV, TB, and malaria-related deaths over 5 years may increase up to 10%, 20%, and 36%, respectively, compared to the case in the world without COVID-19. 7 Table 1 

COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)

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Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; 2020

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