Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and factors associated with the infection among PLWHIV over the first 12 months following the outbreak of COVID-19 in Burkina Faso.
Design: A retrospective cross-sectional study of plasma samples collected from March 9, 2020, and March 8, 2021, at the outpatient HIV referral center, before the introduction of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in Burkina Faso.
Methods: Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG were detected in plasma using DS-ЕIA-ANTI-SARS-CoV-2-G (S) kit. Logistic regressions were used to compare SARS-CoV-2 specific immune responses between groups and within subgroups.
Results and discussion: A total of 419 plasma were subjected to serological diagnosis. None of the participants was vaccinated against COVID-19 during the period of sample collection, and 130 samples were positive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG, giving a prevalence of 31.0% (95% CI 26.6-35.7). The median CD4 cell count was 661 cells/μL (IQR,422-928). Retailers had half the risk of being infected compared to housemaids with an OR of 0.49 (p = 0.028, 95% CI 0.26-0.91). Likewise, the risk of infection was 1.69 times higher in patients on integrase inhibitors compared to that of patients on non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (p = 0.020, 95% CI 1.09-2.63).
Conclusion: Our study reveals a high seroprevalence among PLWHIV to SARS-CoV-2 during the first year of the pandemic. In addition, PLWHIV on integrase inhibitors are 1.69 times more likely to be infected than PLWHIV on non-nucleoside inhibitors, and this observation remains an intriguing topic that still needs to be clarified.
Copyright: © 2023 Kaboré et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.