A new study led by researchers at UBC and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) is shedding light on how COVID-19 pandemic restrictions impacted another long-standing public health threat — HIV.
The study, published in the Lancet Regional Health – Americas, examined HIV transmission during B.C.’s initial COVID-19 lockdown (March 22 to May 20, 2020) when stringent public health measures reduced social interactions and curtailed access to critical health services. The researchers looked at the impact of these restrictions on populations at risk of acquiring HIV, including people who use drugs (PWUD) and men who have sex with men (MSM).
Dr. Jeffrey Joy
While the overall number of new HIV diagnoses in B.C. continues a decades-long decline, epidemic monitoring during lockdown enabled rapid detection of a sharp increase in transmission within some groups (clusters) associated with PWUD.
“We’re seeing the significant impact of converging public health threats within an extremely vulnerable population,” says senior author Dr. Jeffrey Joy, an assistant professor in UBC’s department of medicine and senior scientist at BC-CfE. “HIV transmission amongst people who use drugs had been relatively stable, but there was a sudden spike in select groups during lockdown.”