Structural vulnerability among patients with HIV and SARS-CoV-2 Co-infection: descriptive case series from the U.S. Midwest

ABSTRACT

HIV and COVID-19 disproportionately impact marginalized populations, especially racial and ethnic minorities. This descriptive case series from an HIV clinic in the U.S. Midwest explores the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of 37 individuals with HIV and SARS-CoV-2 co-infection. All 37 had suppressed viral loads prior to diagnosis with COVID-19, and all 37 survived. Relative to our overall HIV clinic population, over twice as many Hispanic patients, three times as many undocumented patients, and four times as many refugee patients contracted COVID-19, highlighting the structural vulnerability of these sub-populations.

KEYWORDS:

• Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
• acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
• coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
• severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
• health equity
• health disparities
• structural vulnerability
• structural competency

Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to our patients, without whom our research would not be possible. We are also grateful to Tacy Slater, MSW, MPH, and Precious Davis, BSN, MSN, from the UNMC Specialty Care Clinic for their assistance with data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Potential conflicts of interest

None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to report.

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Funding

The authors report no financial support for this work.