Infectious Disease

There are “significant differences” in COVID-19 vaccination rates among people with HIV

December 04, 2021

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Grinspoon reports that he has received consulting fees from Navidea, Theratechnologies, and Viiv unrelated to this work. Please refer to the study for all relevant financial information from the other authors.

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COVID-19 vaccination rates vary significantly among people with HIV, researchers found.

According to a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, factors influencing these differences include age, race, gender, body mass index, and country of residence.

Source: Adobe Stock.

Researchers say there are “significant differences” between regions in COVID-19 vaccination rates for people with HIV. Source: Adobe Stock.

Steven Grinspoon

“Data has shown that people living with HIV have increased the morbidity and mortality from COVID-19.” Steven Grinspoon, MD, Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard, Healio said.

“Therefore,” said Grinspoon, “it is vital that people living with HIV, who constitute a vulnerable and immunocompromised population, are vaccinated against COVID-19” – something the NIH has also emphasized in its recommendations.

For their study, Grinspoon and colleagues attempted to evaluate vaccination rates and specific vaccination-related characteristics in this population using data from the Randomized Trial to Prevent Vascular Events in HIV (REPRIEVE), a study of people living with HIV who Conducted in 11 countries in both high and low income regions of global disease burden (GBD).

According to the study, vaccination rates among REPRIEVE participants were similar to the general population in different countries and GBD regions, although Grinspoon said there were “very significant differences” in vaccination rates within those regions and countries.

For example, the study showed that the collective vaccination rate among REPRIEVE participants was 55% by the end of July 2021, but vaccination rates were highest in high-income “super regions” (71%), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (59%), South Asia (49%), Southeast / East Asia (41%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (18%).

Another analysis showed that the country-specific rates varied “dramatically” within these regions, according to Grinspoon. The data showed that vaccination rates were highest in the United States (72%), Peru (69%) and Brazil (63%), and lowest in South Africa (18%), Uganda (3%) and Haiti (0%) was. .

According to the study, the overall REPRIEVE population was more likely to be vaccinated if they came from high-income GBD superregions; were white, male, older, and had longer ART durations; and had higher BMI percentages and higher cardiovascular risk.

“Given that the data highlight large inequalities in rates across all GBD regions, public health officials should use these data to step up efforts to gain access to vaccines for people living with HIV, especially in those groups who are prone to the morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 in these regions, ”said Grinspoon. “These results also illustrate differences in vaccination rates between subsets of people living with HIV, even in high-income regions where efforts to vaccinate people of color and women should be stepped up.”

He added, “The data reassuringly suggests that those with a higher BMI and higher cardiovascular risk have higher vaccination rates, which is important in preventing morbidity in these risk populations.”

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