Background: SARS-CoV-2 infection continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Preliminary data on SARS-CoV-2 infection suggests that some immunocompromised hosts experience worse outcomes. We performed a retrospective matched cohort study to characterize outcomes in HIV-positive patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Methods: Leveraging data collected from electronic medical records for all patients hospitalized at NYU Langone Health with COVID-19 between March 2, 2020 and April 23, 2020, we matched 21 HIV-positive patients to 42 non-HIV patients using a greedy nearest neighbor algorithm. Admission characteristics, laboratory results, and hospital outcomes were recorded and compared between the two groups.
Results: While there was a trend toward increased rates of ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, and mortality in HIV-positive patients, these differences were not statistically significant. Rates for these outcomes in our cohort are similar to those previously published for all patients hospitalized with COVID-19. HIV-positive patients had significantly higher admission and peak CRP values. Other inflammatory markers did not differ significantly between groups, though HIV-positive patients tended to have higher peak values during their clinical course. Three HIV-positive patients had superimposed bacterial pneumonia with positive sputum cultures, and all three patients expired during hospitalization. There was no difference in frequency of thrombotic events or myocardial infarction between these groups.
Conclusion: This study provides evidence that HIV coinfection does not significantly impact presentation, hospital course, or outcomes of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, when compared to matched non-HIV patients. A larger study is required to determine if the trends we observed apply to all HIV-positive patients.
Organ transplant recipients may not mount an adequate immune response to COVID‐19 infection and therefore may benefit greatly from passive immunization with anti‐spike monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), which have been shown to decrease hospitalization rates in the general outpatient population. We evaluated the efficacy of mAb therapy in decreasing hospitalizations or emergency room (ER) visits among kidney transplant recipients (KTR) with COVID‐19. We identified KTR with COVID‐19 between March 1, 2020 and April 30, 2021. Patients were excluded if they had multi‐organ transplant or hospital‐acquired COVID‐19. We studied 95 KTR; 20 received mAb. mAb administration was associated with a significant decrease in hospitalizations or ER visits (15% vs. 76%,
p
< 0.001). This association remained significant after adjustment for potential confounders, and analysis of mAb administration as a time‐dependent variable, with day of symptom onset as day 1 (adjusted HR 0.216,
p
= 0.04). Black or Hispanic patients were less likely to receive mAb and more likely to be admitted to the hospital or visit the ER. In our KTR population, mAb therapy for COVID‐19 may have helped decrease hospitalizations and ER visits. Healthcare inequities, including access to investigational treatments, have been exacerbated by the COVID‐19 pandemic. Antiviral mAbs are a promising therapeutic modality, especially for immunocompromised patients.
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