One of the most important ways of HIV infection early diagnosis is population screening. During the pandemic of novel coronavirus infection, carrying out of medical check-ups and annual preventive medical examinations were suspended.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the dynamics of morbidity and HIV infection incidence in the Kursk region before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The analysis of newsletters data of Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, Center for AIDS Prevention and Control «Kursk Regional Multidisciplinary Clinical Hospital» has been carried out. Methods of descriptive and analytical statistics were used for statistical data processing. The differences were considered statistically significant at p<0.05.
RESULTS
The prevalence of HIV infection in the Kursk region is significantly lower than in the Russian Federation and the Central Federal District (CFD), but it has increased by 4.2 times (p<0.001) for 10 years. An increase in primary morbidity in the Kursk region was recorded during 2011—2017 yrs., and then a significant decrease was in 2020 yr. (p<0.001). The incidence of HIV infection in the Kursk region is significantly lower than in the Russian Federation and the CFD (p<0.001). In 2020 yr., during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people examined for antibodies to HIV infection in the Kursk region decreased sharply, as the medical check-ups and annual preventive medical examinations were suspended. The number of new cases of HIV antibody detection per 100.000 tested population decreased steadily.
CONCLUSION
The detection of new HIV infection cases was complicated during the COVID-19 pandemic. These data are confirmed by the decline in the number of surveyed population, which may have contributed to a decline in HIV infection rates. However, the number of new HIV antibody detection cases per 100.000 of the examined population in the Kursk region has been decreasing steadily. This indicates a true decrease in the number of new HIV infection cases.
