Late diagnosis of HIV among Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic: A retrospective, observational study.

OBJECTIVES

This retrospective, observational, non-interventional study describes the demographics, characteristics, immunological and virological status, coinfections, healthcare unit of HIV diagnosis and follow-up status of Ukrainian refugees with newly diagnosed HIV in the Czech Republic, with a special focus on those with a late HIV diagnosis.

METHODS

Ukrainian nationals with war refugee status, Ukrainian nationals with Czech Republic resident status and Czech Republic nationals who newly registered at HIV centres in the Czech Republic between March 2022 and June 2023 with a new diagnosis of HIV were included. Data were collected from medical records. The study was registered with the Czech State Institute for Drug Control (ID 2401240000).

RESULTS

In total, 298 patients with a new HIV diagnosis were included in the study. Of these, 58 patients were Ukrainian refugees who were retained in care. This cohort had a mean age of 37.0 years (min-max 13-60) and most (62.1%) were women. More than half of the Ukrainian refugees in this study (60.3%) had a late HIV diagnosis; these patients were older than those with a prompt diagnosis (mean age 40.7 vs. 31.5 years, p < 0.001). Ukrainian refugees were infrequently diagnosed in primary care and significantly more likely to have a late HIV diagnosis (60.3% vs. 37.8%, p = 0.005) and be diagnosed at a later HIV stage (p = 0.021) than Czech nationals.

CONCLUSION

Ukrainian refugees were more likely to have a late HIV diagnosis than Czech nationals.