Publication date: Jun 06, 2026
Evidence on COVID-19 among people living with HIV (PLWH) remains mixed and context-dependent. We prospectively followed 64 PLWH receiving antiretroviral therapy at a tertiary university hospital in Martin, Slovakia (September 2020-September 2021). SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed by RT-PCR. COVID-19 was diagnosed in 54 of 64 participants (84. 4%) and was generally mild; none required intensive care, and no deaths were reported. There were no statistically significant differences between PLWH who did and did not develop COVID-19 with respect to age, duration of HIV infection, CD4 cell count, or viral suppression. Participants who developed COVID-19 were more likely to have at least one documented comorbidity; however, this did not appear to translate into severe outcomes in this small cohort. Among those with COVID-19, exploratory comparisons showed no clear differences in short-term outcomes according to mRNA vaccination status. In this small exploratory cohort of ART-treated individuals in Slovakia, we did not identify clear clinical or HIV-related predictors of COVID-19 outcomes; however, the study was underpowered and the findings should be interpreted cautiously.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Hiv | Antiretroviral therapy |
| Pcr | CD4 |
| Slovakia | Central Europe |
| Underpowered | COVID-19 |
| HIV | |
| SARS-CoV-2 | |
| Slovakia | |
| Vaccination |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 |
| pathway | REACTOME | SARS-CoV-2 Infection |
| disease | MESH | HIV infection |
| pathway | REACTOME | HIV Infection |
| disease | MESH | Long Covid |