Research Information System
19th European AIDS Conference, Warszawa, Poland, 18 - 21 October 2023, pp.45
The influence of COVID-19 pandemic on HIV care in Izmir, Turkiye
A. NAZLI , S. ATALAY , N. YALCIN , G. HELVACI , H. ALTAN , D. GOKENGIN
Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology Department, Izmir, Turkey, Univesity of Health Sciences, Tepecik
Training and Research Hospital, Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology Clinic, Izmir, Turkey, Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Infectious Diseases
and Clinical Microbiology Department, Izmir, Turkey, Ministry of Health Siirt Training and Research Hospital, Siirt, Turkey
Abstract body
Purpose: To analyse the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the management of people living with HIV (PLWH).
Method: The study included individuals (≥18 years) newly diagnosed with HIV during the first year of the COVID 19 pandemic (2020-2021; Group 1), and
during the two years prior to the pandemic (2018-2019 and 2019-2020; Group 2), which were compared in terms of the time from diagnosis to treatment to
the first control visit, and the time to virologic suppression. A third group (Group 3) included PLWH who were already within the healthcare system receiving
HIV care; the pre- and post-pandemic (first visit) physical and laboratory findings of this group were compared.
Results: The study included 641 (88.8% male, 11.2% female) patients; 127 in Group 1, 253 in Group 2 (124 in 2019-2020, 129 in 2018-2019) and 261 in
Group 3. Overall the mean age was 39.4±12 years. Although the number of new diagnoses was reduced by 17.8% during the first eight months of the
pandemic, it increased by 39.2% in the first three months of the normalization period. The time to the first viral load test results were delayed (p=0,002),
the time for ART start was similar (p=0,116), the number of visits per year was lower (p=0,0001) and the percentage of undetectable RNA at 24 weeks was
lower(p= 0,0001) in Group1 compared to Group 2. The comparison of remaining parameters is shown in Table 1. The mean follow-up period of 261 patients
on ART was 24.7 months (12-144). Table 2 shows the pre- and post-pandemic comparison of physical and laboratory parameters of Group 3.
Conclusions: The pandemic had a negative effect on the care of newly diagnosed PLWH and those under care in terms of diagnosis, virologic suppression and metabolic conditions
