Journal of Clinical Research

Assessing the Prevalence of COVID-19 and Associated Outcomes among People Living with HIV/AIDS at Kitwe Teaching Hospital between 1st July-30th September, 2021

Abstract

Emmanuel Muwowo*

Aim: COVID-19 has created a global public health emergency with significant mortality and morbidity for People Living with HIV (PLWH). Preliminary data reveals persons with immune-compromised status are at risk of developing adverse clinical outcomes from SARS-CoV-2. This study intended to characterise clinical outcomes of HIV patients co-infected with SARS-CoV-2 infection at Kitwe Teaching Hospital (KTH).

Materials and methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among patients admitted with COVID-19 at KTH between 1^st July and 30^th September, 2021. All necessary data was collected from files and records of patients admitted between 1^st July and 30^th September, 2021, using a data extraction sheet. Data was entered, coded and analysed using SPSS version 26*64.

Results: 17.4% of admitted patients were HIV positive, with 40.5% were HIV negative and 42.0% had their HIV status unknown. There was no correlation between HIV status and clinical outcomes (p-value=0.146), instead, there was significance between gender and clinical outcome (p-value=0.026). There was an observed overall mortality rate of 80% for all patients admitted due to COVID-19, regardless of their HIV status.

Conclusion and recommendations: There was no observed influence of HIV on clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients. The increased mortality rate of HIV infected patients could be attributed to many other things. That is why recommendations to seek medical attention early, improving management of patients with special needs and encouraging seeking medical care for related symptoms were made.