COVID-19-Related Laboratory Analyte Changes and the Relationship Between SARS-CoV-2 and HIV, TB, and HbA1c in South Africa.

Hesse, R; van der Westhuizen, D J; George, J A

We conducted a retrospective analysis on data of all adults tested for SARS-CoV-2 across our laboratory network in South Africa over a 4-month period. Out of 842,197 tests, 11.7% were positive and 88.3% negative. The prevalence of HIV was 6.25 and 6.31% in the SARS-CoV-2-positive and SARS-CoV-2-negative cohort, respectively (p = 0.444). However, the prevalence of HIV-positive individuals in the critical cohort (9.15%) was higher than in the noncritical group (6.24%) (p = 0.011). Active tuberculosis infection was approximately 50% less in SARS-CoV-2-positive than in SARS-CoV-2-negative individuals. The prevalence of uncontrolled diabetes was 3.4 times higher in SARS-CoV-2-positive cases but was not higher in the critical vs. noncritical cases (p = 0.612). The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, coagulation markers, urea, and cardiac- and liver-related analytes were significantly elevated in the critical compared to noncritical cases. Platelet count and creatinine concentration did not differ significantly between the two groups. These findings do not support increased prevalence of HIV or tuberculosis in individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection but do suggest an association of increased disease severity with HIV-positive status. Uncontrolled diabetes was positively associated with a significantly higher prevalence of SARS-CoV-2, and our investigation into analyte changes associated with SARS-CoV-2 disease severity supported previous findings of raised inflammatory markers, coagulation markers, liver- and cardiac-related analytes, and urea but not for creatinine and platelet count.