[nudephil (OP)]

Here's a question from David:

I live in Johannesburg, South Africa, and people living with HIV take antiretrovirals that work so well that they have no trace of the virus. Not cured - but no trace. The coronavirus is about to infect these people. Do you have an opinion on whether these drugs will help, or are these people still classed as vulnerable?

Any thoughts?

[chris]

This is a really interesting question and there are a couple of things to consider.

From the perspective of HIV, a person with well-controlled disease, indicated by an undetectable viral load in the blood stream, may be regarded as being at low risk of opportunistic and other infectious diseases.

With respect to the new coronavirus infection, there are trials going on at the moment to test certain HIV agents (specifically the protease inhibitor combo lopinavir / ritonavir) to explore their impact against coronavirus growth. There is some anecdotal and in-vitro data suggesting that these agents might be effective, but those data are low-powered and statistically vulnerable, hence trials to sure up our understanding. If it turns out that these protease inhibitors do have an effect, then HIV patients taking them would have the benefit of added protection against COVID19.