Higher intensive care unit consultations for COVID-19 patients living with HIV compared to those without HIV co-infection in Uganda.

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is the leading cause of death worldwide from a single infectious agent. Whether or not HIV infection affects clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19 remains inconclusive. This study aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of people living with HIV (PLWH) and non-HIV-infected patients hospitalized during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda. Methods: We retrospectively retrieved data of patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda between April 2021 and mid-July 2021. We performed propensity-score-matching of 1:5 to compare outcomes in COVID-19 patients living with and those without HIV co-infection (controls). Results: We included 31 PLWH and 155 non-HIV controls. The baseline characteristics were similar across groups (all p values > 0.05). PLWH had close to 3-fold higher odds of having ICU consultation compared to controls ([OR]: 2.9, 95% CI: 1.2 – 6.9, p=0.015). There was a trend towards having a severe or critical COVID-19 illness among PLWHIH compared to controls (odds ratio [OR]: 1.9, 95% CI: 0.8 – 4.7, p=0.164). Length of hospitalization was not significantly different between PLWH and non-HIV controls (6 days for vs. 7 days, p=0.184). Seven-day survival was 63% (95% CI: 42% – 78%) among PLWH and 72% (95% CI: 61% – 82%) among controls while 14-day survival was 50% (95% CI: 28% – 69%) among PLWH and 65% (95% CI: 55% – 73%) among controls (p=0.280). There was another trend towards having 1.7-fold higher odds of mortality among PLWH compared to controls ([OR]: 1.7, 95% CI: 0.8 – 3.8, p=0.181). Conclusions: Our data suggests that PLWH may be at an increased risk of severe or critical COVID-19 illness requiring ICU consultation. Further studies with larger sample sizes are recommended.

Keywords

SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, Coronavirus disease 2019, HIV

Citation

Fleischer, B., Olum, R., Nakwagala, F. N., Nassozi, D. R., Pitua, I., Paintsil, E., ... & Bongomin, F. (2022). Higher intensive care unit consultations for COVID‐19 patients living with HIV compared to those without HIV co‐infection in Uganda. Journal of Medical Virology. DOI: 10.1002/jmv.27887

URI

https://nru.uncst.go.ug/handle/123456789/7115

Collections

Medical and Health Sciences

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