COVID‐19 Pandemic Disrupts HIV Continuum of Care and Prevention: Implications for Research and Practice Concerning Community‐Based Organizations and Frontline Providers

Abstract

More quickly and more vividly than they could have anticipated, people living with (PLWH) and those at-risk for HIV felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as they were asked to shelter in place and distance themselves from others. Over the months of March and April 2020, around the time shelter-in-place orders accelerated, community-based organizations (CBOs) have closed, medical offices have cut hours, and medical personnel have shifted from primary care to COVID-19 hospital units. We assess the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the HIV Continuum of Care and Prevention—that is, testing, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and primary care—and propose a course of action so that we may end the HIV epidemic in this decade.