HIV and inflammatory markers are associated with persistent COVID-19 symptoms

BackgroundA proportion of COVID19 survivors may present with long-COVID, which is persistent symptoms lasting four or more weeks post SARS-CoV-2 infection. These symptoms may be mild to severe, and may affect different organ-systems of the body. AimsThe main objective of this study was to determine the demographic, clinical and immunological factors associated with long COVID. Materials & MethodsWe conducted a nested case control study, with a total of 94 study participants initially included, and 64 participants matched for age and sex for biomarker analyses. Results32/94 (34.1%) of all the participants had long COVID. Respiratory symptoms were the most common (59.5%) followed by the musculoskeletal symptoms (28.1%). HIV was an independent predictor of long COVID (adjusted odds ratio = 2.7; p = .037). In all the 64 matched cases and controls, IFN-beta was significantly higher among controls than cases. After stratifying by HIV, IL6 was significantly higher among cases than controls in the HIV- group (2.06 vs. 0.81 pg/mL; p = .02). On the other hand, IFN-beta was significantly higher among controls than cases in the HIV+ group (251 vs. 0 pg/mL; p = .01). ConclusionHIV infection is a risk factor for long COVID, and inflammatory markers associated with long COVID may be slightly different for HIV- and HIV+ individuals.