HIV meds and COVID-19 risk.

[Guest Descartes70817]

My ID clinician informed me this morning that data is showing that HIV+ people who regularly take their anti retroviral treatments and remain undetectable were having having milder symptoms than similar groups of HIV- people, and are no more likely to get infected by the COVID virus than everyone else. The only information I can find from the CDC just says we are no more at risk than anyone else of similar age and physical condition, and that symptoms are generally mild but nothing clearly saying symptoms will be be milder for us than for  everyone else. Does anyone have any knowledge about this?

[SpectreAgent]

That’s interesting because in the UK we’re bumped up the vaccine list, I think, presumably because we’re deemed a vulnerable group. 

[fillmyholeftl]

There has been anecdotal evidence showing milder or less infection rates, but nothing confirmed by scientific studies. 

 

[workmyhole]

4 hours ago, Descartes70817 said:

My ID clinician informed me this morning that data is showing that HIV+ people who regularly take their anti retroviral treatments and remain undetectable were having having milder symptoms than similar groups of HIV- people, and are no more likely to get infected by the COVID virus than everyone else. The only information I can find from the CDC just says we are no more at risk than anyone else of similar age and physical condition, and that symptoms are generally mild but nothing clearly saying symptoms will be be milder for us than for  everyone else. Does anyone have any knowledge about this?

 

1 hour ago, fillmyholeftl said:

There has been anecdotal evidence showing milder or less infection rates, but nothing confirmed by scientific studies. 

 

As someone who recently tested positive for COVID-19, who is also HIV positive and taking my meds every day, my experience of COVID was very mild.  I experienced some aches, fatigue, and headaches; fortunately nothing more serious.  So there may be some truth to the anecdotal evidence of milder COVID infection if HIV positive and taking your meds.

 

[Guest Descartes70817]

1 hour ago, fillmyholeftl said:

There has been anecdotal evidence showing milder or less infection rates, but nothing confirmed by scientific studies. 

 

I read that scientific data is scant, and no amount of anecdotes ever adds up to data. Back to wait and see, I guess. I'm on a backup list at my clinic, where they call down their list until they find someone who can come in for the vaccine before it expires, which is 6 hours after the first dose is drawn. Pretty much have to be ready to go all day, every day just in case I get the call.

[Detchiller]

Yeah, they are 2 different categories of viruses, (coronavirus and retrovirus) so treatment methods are different. There was talk in April about hiv meds possibly being used for Covid, but that’s where things end. No further research has been published that I can find. The coronavirus is still pretty new so research had to be done then peer reviewed before any claims can be made.

[tallslenderguy]

I've been curious about this too. IV Remdesivir (an HIV med) is standard treatment for Covid positive patients. i'm a critical care nurse and currently have >1000 hours of directed care with Covid + patients. When we started using remdesivir, i naturally made the connection. So many of the meds we use simply don't have evidence supporting them because that takes time to study and produce. Also, many of the meds we use (off label use of drugs made for other purposes) are used with the rational of addressing symptoms. For instance cytokine response syndrome (CRS, aka "cytokine storm") is a hyper inflammatory response to the virus that ends up killing a lot of people, so we give things like steroids to blunt the inflammatory response. 

i currently have both doses of the Pfizer vaccine on board, i'm hopeful. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also showing some hopeful effect in trials with Covid poz patients. 

Yay science. 

[BugChaser85IT]

Well.. slamming while having Covid+ could give you this kind l of surprise 😉 strong bacterial infection ride up in a minute 😅

Edited March 4, 2021 by BugChaser85IT