Here’s the latest advice from experts about coronavirus for people living with HIV.
Leading sexual health specialists have issued specific advice for people living with HIV about the risks posed by the coronavirus — with some urging extra precaution for patients who are not virally suppressed.
Professor Sheena McCormack, a global expert in HIV and epidemiology — the study of disease spread —says that the COVID-19 outbreak “wouldn’t have much implications at all” for people with HIV who have an undetectable viral load (meaning that the virus is suppressed) and who have a good CD4 count (the chief measure of the immune system) — beyond the risk it poses for anyone else.
Anyone with HIV who is not virally suppressed, or has a low CD4 count, should consider HIV to be a “significant comorbidity” and should avoid public transport.
“Cancel any plans to travel,” she advised, including avoiding airports and any regions with particularly high concentrations of coronavirus infections. Older HIV patients are more likely to not be virally suppressed and more likely to have a low CD4 count.
The coronavirus is a “respiratory spread virus” so coughing and close contact — which allows the virus onto your hands and you then you then touch your mouth or eyes — are the main drivers of onward infection.
You are recommended to wash hands thoroughly, regularly, and to avoid putting your fingers in your mouth.
