CD4 + Count: a Variable to Be Considered to Prioritize COVID-19 Vaccination in PLHIV

The outbreak of the COVID-19 propagates, pressurizing the healthcare system by emphasizing and worsening the inequities. While many vaccines have shown excellent efficacy in protecting the general public from the COVID-19 infection, the efficacy of these vaccines for people living with HIV (PLHIV), especially those having a different range of CD4 + T-cell, has yet to be thoroughly investigated. Few studies have uncovered the escalated infection and death rates due to the COVID-19 infection in individuals with low CD4 + T-cells. Additionally, PLHIV has a low CD4 + count; furthermore, specific CD4 + T cells for coronavirus have a vigorous Th1 role and are related to the protective antibody responses. Follicular helper T cells (TFH) are vulnerable to HIV and virus-specific CD4 & CD8 T-cells which are essential for viral infection clearance and defective immune responses which further contributes to the development of illness. The specific CD8 & CD4 + T-cell reaction to severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified in almost all COVID-19 recovered individuals, which is related to the size of antibodies of immunoglobulin G. It has previously been demonstrated that PLHIV has decreased responses to certain vaccines and that these responses are reliant on CD4 + T-cell levels. COVID-19 vaccines will likely have a lower response or limited effect, in PLHIV having low CD4 + T-cells.