COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, HIV Outcomes monitored the impact on people living with HIV, their health services and the organisations supporting them. Below are the main findings from studies published during this period, highlighting the broad impact on HIV communities.

• People living with HIV have between a 78%-95% higher risk of death from COVID-19 than the general population and a 20% higher risk of hospitalization.

• In the WHO Europe region, up to 50% of HIV stakeholders stopped face-to-face HIV services since the beginning of the pandemic and almost 20% reported that users did not use their alternative service arrangements.

• Up to 70% of HIV clinics were disrupted in WHO Eastern Europe countries with 60% of physicians sharing HIV and COVID-19 care duties.

• Case studies across WHO Europe show that HIV consultations fell by 50% and HIV enrollments by 20% at the outbreak of the pandemic.

• People living with HIV were not prioritised for COVID-19 vaccination in around 60% of countries in WHO Europe and only 14% had national guidelines for vaccination of PLIV.

• In WHO Europe, an estimated 25,143 people living with HIV were not diagnosed in 2020 because of the pandemic. This resulted in 104,765 new diagnoses in 2020 down from 136,449 in 2019 (a 26% decrease in HIV diagnoses).

• An estimated 100,000 HIV tests were not performed in 2020 among the 8 EU/EEA countries that reported data on testing.