HIV and COVID-19: Lessons from HIV and STI harm reduction strategies

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review highlights the intersection of the COVID-19, HIV, and STI pandemics and examines how harm reduction strategies can be applied broadly to controlling a pandemic. RECENT FINDINGS: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, remarkable advances in the understanding of COVID-19 prevention, diagnosis, and treatment have been made at a much faster pace than prior pandemics, yet much more still remains to be discovered. Many of the strategies to control the COVID-19 pandemic mirror those employed to stem the HIV pandemic. Harm reduction principles used in the HIV pandemic can be applied to reduce the morbidity and mortality of the COVID-19 pandemic through effective prevention, detection, and treatment strategies.

• Population(s)
  • General HIV+ population
• Prevention, Engagement and Care Cascade
  • Prevention
• Prevention
  • Drug use behaviours/harm reduction
  • Biomedical interventions
• Co-morbidities
  • Other