Association of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 variables: an ecological study

Abstract

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become the greatest critical healthcare concern in 2020. The present study investigated the correlation between COVID-19 distribution and the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) among countries. Material and methods: Data were obtained from publicly available data on COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Global Burden of Disease (GBD). Bivariate correlation analyses were used to investigate the correlation between the variables. Results: COVID-19 cases and death ratio negatively correlated with the prevalence of HIV/AIDS (r = -0.40 and r = -0.38, p < 0.05, respectively). Conclusions: The findings indicated that in countries with high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 cases and death ratio were low, which could be due to the type of therapy or screening system. Nevertheless, further studies are required in this field.