Annie Antar, MD, PhD, discusses how patients with HIV can have different and longer-lasting symptoms of COVID-19.
Annie Antar, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins Medicine, discussed how those diagnosed with HIV can have different presentations of long COVID and how that needs to be considered when treating the long-term condition.
Transcript
What additional factors influence treatment decisions in patients with HIV and how does long COVID impact these considerations?
If we step back from the word "long COVID" and just look at the rates of death or rates of new heart attack or rates of new comorbidities in the year after having COVID-19, that's higher in people living with HIV than not, and that was in that Grace McComsey paper.
It's clear that if you're living with HIV in that year after the COVID-19 [pandemic], you're more likely to have something go wrong with you than if you didn't have HIV. Some of those people might have a heart attack, but they don't say, "I have long COVID," even though maybe the risk of that heart attack was increased because of HIV and long COVID, or like HIV and having had COVID. I think even when people don't recognize that they have long COVID, I fear that just having had COVID-19 will translate to a higher rate of problems in people living with HIV. And then for the people who know they have long COVID, it absolutely affects everything about their life. When they're going to their doctor, hopefully, their doctor is a little bit versed in long COVID and trying to come up with symptom treatment plans for them, and that might impact when they take their medications and all sorts of things about how they carry out their day. I guess we'll have to see over time how this plays out.
I personally had a patient with long COVID, but he actually died. He died of a heart attack within a year of having had COVID-19. Then I had another patient whose main long COVID symptom is anosmia, and she doesn't think it affects the rest of her life, but a lot of people have anosmia and then don't have the rest of the long COVID symptoms. I'm not sure she's like a good example of a person with long COVID. But the person that I described before was very short of breath. He used to go out and walk on the track a bunch. He couldn't do that after having COVID-19. Sadly, he had a heart attack and died, which is really, really sad, within, I think, 6 or 8 months. I think we'll just have to see over time.
New Insights Into Meth-Associated PAH Care Gaps: Anjali Vaidya, MD, on Closing the Divide
June 4th 2025Research from Anjali Vaidya, MD, FACC, FASE, FACP, Temple University Hospital, reveals critical care gaps for patients with methamphetamine-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), emphasizing the need for early diagnosis and integrated support.
Read More
Elevating Equitable Health Care for the LGBTQ+ Community
June 18th 2024For the third episode in our special Pride Month series, we speak with Patrick McGovern, CEO of Callen-Lorde since August of 2023 and an outspoken advocate for HIV; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus (LGBTQ+); and community health.
Listen
In VERIFY, Rusfertide Spares Most Patients With PV a Phlebotomy for 32 Weeks, Improves QOL
June 3rd 2025Adding rusfertide to standard of care more than doubled the share of patients with polycythemia vera (PV) who did not meet criteria for a phlebotomy, according to data from the VERIFY trial.
Read More
The Importance of Examining and Preventing Atrial Fibrillation
August 29th 2023At this year’s American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention, Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, delivered the Honorary Fellow Award Lecture, “The Imperative to Focus on the Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation,” as the recipient of this year’s Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology award.
Listen
Depth of Responses, PFS in Transplant-Ineligible Patients Match Overall Findings in CEPHEUS
June 2nd 2025Quadruplet therapy is now the accepted standard for patients newly diagnosed with myeloma who are ineligible for transplant; there is debate whether all newly diagnosed patients should have this regimen.
Read More
Trastuzumab Deruxtecan Plus Pertuzumab Improves PFS vs Standard Care in HER2+ Breast Cancer
June 2nd 2025Trastuzumab deruxtecan plus pertuzumab demonstrated statistically and clinically significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) in HER2-positive breast cancer, potentially representing a new standard of care.
Read More