Outcomes of patients with HIV and COVID-19 co-infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Data on the association of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection with adverse outcomes in patients with COVID-19 are conflicting. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to summarize the available information on the risk of hospitalization, severe disease, and death attributable to HIV in patients with COVID-19. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and SCOPUS were searched through October 25, 2021, to identify relevant studies, without language restriction. A random-effects model was used to pool estimates. RESULTS: We included 44 studies reporting information from 38,971,065 patients with COVID-19. The pooled prevalence of HIV among COVID-19 patients was 26.9 ‰ (95% CI 22.7–31.3) and was significantly higher in studies conducted in Africa compared to those conducted elsewhere (118.5‰ [95% CI 84.8–156.9, 11 studies] vs 10.9‰ [95% CI 8.8–13.2, 27 studies]). In pooled analyses of unadjusted odds ratio, HIV-positive individuals were more likely to be admitted to hospital (OR: 1.49; 95% CI 1.01–2.21, 6 studies) compared to HIV-negative individuals. In the adjusted (for age and sex) analyses, HIV was associated with an increased risk of death (hazard ratio: 1.76, 95% CI 1.31–2.35, 2 studies). However, HIV was not associated with the severity of the disease (OR: 1.28; 95% CI 0.77–2.13, 13 studies), or death (OR: 0.81; 95% CI 0.47; 1.41, 23 studies) in patients with COVID-19 in the meta-analysis of unadjusted odds ratio. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that patients with HIV have an increased risk of hospital admission for COVID-19. HIV seems to be independently associated with increased risk of mortality in COVID-19 patient in adjusted analysis. However, this evidence was derived from only two studies. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12981-021-00427-y.