WHO, in a statement on its website, stated
that nearly a quarter of people living with HIV and who were hospitalised as a
result of COVID-19 infection ended up dying.
The statement quoted Dr. Meg Doherty,
Director of WHO’s Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes, as saying: “the
report released today (Thursday) will have important policy implications.
“It will provide data to confirm that HIV
is a risk for poor outcomes from COVID-19 and increases the urgency to see all
PLHIV on treatment and with access to COVID-19 vaccinations.’’
The report is based on clinical
surveillance data from 37 countries regarding the risk of poor COVID-19
outcomes in people living with HIV (PLHIV) admitted to the hospital for
COVID-19.
It found that the risk of developing severe
or fatal COVID-19 was 30 percent greater in PLHIV compared to people without
HIV infection and underlying conditions such as diabetes and hypertension are
common among PLHIV.
Among male PLHIV over the age of 65 years,
diabetes and hypertension were associated with an increased risk of more severe
and fatal COVID-19 infection.
These conditions are known to put people at
increased risk of severe disease and death.
This highlights the need for PLHIV to stay
as healthy as possible, regularly access and take their antiretroviral (ARV)
medications, and prevent and manage underlying conditions.
This also means that people living with
HIV, independent of their immune status, should be prioritised for vaccination
in most settings.
An informal WHO poll revealed that out of
100 countries with information, 40 countries have prioritised PLHIV for
COVID-19 vaccination.
The analysis is informed by data from WHO’s
Global Clinical Platform for COVID-19, which collects individual-level clinical
data and characterizes COVID-19 among individuals hospitalised with suspected
or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection around the globe.
Later this week, WHO will also release
updated Guidelines on HIV prevention, testing, treatment, service delivery and
monitoring.
These guidelines provide more than 200
evidence-informed recommendations and good practice statements for a public
health response to the prevention, testing, and treatment of people living with
HIV.
These recommendations help to ensure that
people with HIV can start and continue treatment during times of service
disruption as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
HIV continues to be a major global public
health issue, having claimed 34.7 million lives so far.
To reach the new proposed global 95–95–95 targets
set by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), countries need to redouble
efforts to avoid increasing HIV infections due to HIV service disruptions
during COVID-19 thereby slowing down the public health response to HIV.
Earlier, a report released by UNAIDS, it
said people living with HIV were more vulnerable to COVID-19.
According to UNAIDS report released on
Wednesday, studies from England and South Africa have shown that the risk of
dying from COVID-19 among people living with HIV was double that of the general
population.
UNAIDS in a statement stated that in
sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to two-thirds (67 per cent) of people living
with HIV, less than three per cent had received at least one dose of a COVID-19
vaccine as at July 2021.
“At the same time, HIV prevention and
treatment services are eluding key populations, as well as children and
adolescents.
“COVID-19 vaccines could save millions of
lives in the developing world but are being kept out of reach as rich countries
and corporations hold on tightly to the monopoly of production and delivery of
supplies for profit.
“This is having a severe impact around the
world as health systems in developing countries become overwhelmed, such as in
Uganda, where football stadia are being turned into makeshift hospitals,’’ it
stated
0 comments:
Post a Comment