COVID‑19 and HIV: Case reports of 2 co‑infected patients with different disease courses

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic has affected thousands of patients and thousands have also succumbed to the disease. The literature reports risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes and an older age. However, the association between immunosuppression caused by diseases, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and COVID‐19 has been rarely reported. In the present study, the cases of 2 HIV‐infected individuals (aged 48 and 49 years) with COVID‐19 symptoms are presented. At 4 days following the onset of COVID‐19 symptoms, the patients tested positive for the syndrome due to coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection by RT‐PCR. The patients were hospitalized in the general ward of a tertiary university hospital for COVID‐19 patients (Hospital das Clinicas from the Medical School of the University of São Paulo), until discharge. Both patients were age‐matched HIV‐positive patients and presented different SARS‐CoV‐2 infection courses. In summary, the findings reported herein highlight that HIV‐infected individuals may be a high‐risk group for developing severe COVID‐19, particularly in asso‐ ciation with other risk factors, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and systemic arterial hypertension.