The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed concerns about social and structural factors related to health disparities, including those related to HIV. The Lens tool is a partial response to an urgent need to understand whether elevated risk of COVID-19 disease and mortality among persons living with HIV (PLWH) results from related risk behaviors, a higher burden of comorbidities, and/or social determinants of health. This tool can help decision-makers, community-based organizations and other stakeholders to access critical neighborhood-level information about the intersection of socio-economic and health vulnerabilities and HIV. The Lens portal also contains information on COVID-19 case rates for counties where such information is available. We hope this information helps guide overstretched public health and health systems in recasting, prioritizing, and improving HIV prevention and treatment services in this tragic pandemic era.
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