The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the provision of HIV/AIDS-related services in Iran: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Providing services to people living with HIV (PLWH) faced many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on providing HIV/AIDS-related services in Iran. METHODS: In this qualitative study, the participants were included by purposive sampling between November 2021 and February 2022. Virtually focused group discussion (FGD) meetings were conducted with the first group including policymakers, service providers, and researchers (n = 17), and the interviews were conducted telephonic and face-to-face using a semi-structured guide with the second group including people who received services (n = 38). Data were analyzed by content analysis using the inductive method in MAXQDA 10 software. RESULTS: Six categories were obtained, including mostly affected services, ways of the effect of COVID-19, healthcare systems reaction, effects on social inequality, opportunities created by the pandemic, and suggestions for the future. In addition, people who received services believed the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their life in several ways, including getting COVID-19, mental and emotional problems during the pandemic, financial problems, changes in the care plan, and changes in high-risk behaviors. CONCLUSION: Considering the level of community involvement with the issue of COVID-19 and the shock caused by the pandemic, as mentioned by the world health organization, it is necessary to improve health systems' resilience for better preparedness for similar conditions.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Disruptions of HIV-related Services: A Rapid Review.

Background: People living with HIV (PLHIV) and those at risk of HIV are marginalized worldwide and need to reach services regularly. The COVID-19 pandemic can disrupt the HIV care continuum. This study aimed to identify the extent to which HIV-related services have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and how we can overcome these challenges. Methods: In this rapid review, we systematically searched PubMed and Scopus databases, the references of studies, international agencies, and studies "cited by" feature in google scholar till May 28, 2021, without restrictions to language. Results: Among the total of 1,121 studies, 31 of them were included in the review. The most important HIV-related services affected by the COVID-19 pandemic were; access to anti-retroviral drugs, HIV testing, periodic HIV-related testing in people living with HIV (PLHIV), pre-exposure prophylaxis, post-exposure prophylaxis, harm reduction services, psychological and counseling services. Some factors were introduced to mitigate the effects of these challenges, including increasing the resilience of health, protecting health care workers and their clients against COVID-19 through vaccination, providing HIV-related services through telehealth, and multi-month dispensing (MMD) of medicines. Conclusion: The results of this review study showed that PLHIV had difficulty in accessing follow-up, care and treatment services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Programs such as the MMD or telemedicine can be useful in providing services to PLHIV during the pandemic.