Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic situation on HIV care in Liège, Belgium

Abstract

Background

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated containment measures dramatically affected the health care systems including the screening of human immunodeficiency virus and the management people living with HIV around the world by making the access to preventive care services and specific medical monitoring more difficult.

Objective

Objective: To study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the holistic care of people living with HIV in Liège (Belgium).

Methods

Methods: In this retrospective observational study conducted in Liège University Hospital, we compared the out-patient follow-up of HIV-infected individuals as well as the number of new HIV diagnoses between 2019 and 2020 and between the different waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Results

Results: In 2020, when compared to 2019, we observed a significant decrease in the number of new HIV diagnoses, especially during the first wave of the pandemic, and in the number of consultations undertaken by sexual health services, psychologists and specialists in infectious diseases at our HIV clinic. We also observed a decrease in the number of viral load assays and blood CD4 + T-cells count analyses performed, although we found less patients with HIV plasma viral load above 400 copies per mL in 2020. Finally, we noted a significant reduction in terms of screening of our HIV-infected patients for hepatitis C, syphilis, colorectal and anal cancers and hypercholesterolemia.

Conclusions

Conclusions: Our experience exhibits the deleterious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the HIV care and the need to implement new strategies to guarantee its continuum.

Keywords:

• HIV care continuum
• HIV prevention
• sexually transmitted infections/diseases
• Europe
• health system
• HIV epidemiology

Code availability

All statistical analyses were performed with SAS Statistical Software version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc, Cary, NC) and R (version 3.6.1) packages were used for the figures.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interests.

Ethics approval

This study was approved by our institutional Ethics Commitee. Informed consent was not obtained from the patients since the Ethics Commitee also provided a consent waiver for our study.

Additional information

Funding

Gilles Darcis is postdoctoral clinical master specialist for the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS). The study was supported by the Léon Frédéricq Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Majdouline El Moussaoui

Majdouline El Moussaoui is a resident medical doctor who works in the department of Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine at the University Hospital of Liège.

Nicolas Lambert

Nicolas Lambert is a resident medical doctor who works in the department of Neurology at the University Hospital of Liège.

Nathalie Maes

Nathalie Maes is a biostatistician who works at the University Hospital of Liège.

Karine Fombellida

Karine Fombellida is a computer scientist and an expert in data management who works at the University Hospital of Liège.

Dolores Vaira

Dolores Vaira is a biologist who works in the AIDS-Reference Laboratory at the University Hospital of Liège.

Michel Moutschen

Michel Moutschen is Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and director of the GIGA’s Immunology and Infectious Diseases Research Unit at the University of Liège. He is also head of the department of infectious diseases, immunology and general internal medicine as well as head of the AIDS reference centre at the University Hospital of Liège.

Gilles Darcis

Gilles Darcis is a specialist in infectious diseases who works at the University Hospital of Liège and a post-doctoral researcher in the GIGA’s Immunology and Infectious Diseases Research Unit at the University of Liège.