Decrease in New Diagnosis of HIV/AIDS in the Two Years Period 2019-2020: Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

The emergence SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 and early 2020 has caused a pandemic of unprecedented proportions. Management of COVID-19 became emergent public health priorities, and the impact on other public health initiatives, such as expanded HIV screening and linkage to care, remain largely unknown. In...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of public health research Vol. 11; no. 1
Main Authors: Quiros-Roldan, Eugenia, Izzo, Ilaria, Carriero, Canio, Antoni, Melania Degli, Storti, Samuele, Tiecco, Giorgio, Gardini, Giulia, Focà, Emanuele, Castelli, Francesco
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Italy PAGEPress Publications, Pavia, Italy 24.09.2021
SAGE Publishing
Subjects:
AIDS
Brief Report
COVID-19
diagnosis
HIV
ISSN:2279-9036, 2279-9028, 2279-9036
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The emergence SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 and early 2020 has caused a pandemic of unprecedented proportions. Management of COVID-19 became emergent public health priorities, and the impact on other public health initiatives, such as expanded HIV screening and linkage to care, remain largely unknown. In this Single-Center retrospective observational study, we describe the characteristics and circumstance of the new HIV cases during 2020 compared to 2019. We observed a decrease of HIV diagnosis during this period. Interestingly, median age at HIV diagnosis decreased of one decade and percentage of female patients was higher. In addition, more patients received diagnosis during hospitalization and more AIDS-defining conditions, such as Pneumocystis pneumonia, were detected. We express our concern that HIV new diagnoses will increase as a result of people's inability to get tested or treated in this period. More efforts are needed to improve local screening programs both during and after COVID-19 pandemic.
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Availability of data and materials: All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
Contributions: The authors contributed equally.
Ethical approval and consent to participate: ??
Conflict of interest: The authors declare no potential conflict of interest.
ISSN:2279-9036
2279-9028
2279-9036
DOI:10.4081/jphr.2021.2256