en Infectious Disease Infectious Disease Review Article Review Article <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">Background: </span></span></b><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">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.&nbsp; 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.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Methods: </b>In this rapid review, we systematically searched PubMed and Scopus databases, the references of studies, international agencies, and studies &quot;cited by&quot; feature in google scholar till May 28, 2021, without restrictions to language. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Results: </b>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.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br> <span style="font-size:13pt"><span style="text-justify:kashida"><span style="text-kashida:0%"><span style="text-autospace:none"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""><span style="font-style:italic"><span style="font-size:9.0pt"><span style="font-style:normal">&nbsp;&nbsp; <b>Conclusion:</b> 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.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> COVID-19, HIV Infection, Telemedicine, Health Medicine 734 742 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1741-24&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Hossein Mirzaei hosseinmirzaei64@yahoo.com 200319475328460072296 200319475328460072296 No HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Yousef Moradi Yousef.Moradi@muk.ac.ir 200319475328460072297 200319475328460072297 Yes Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, & Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran Samaneh Abbaszadeh samane.abaszadeh@gmail.com 200319475328460072298 200319475328460072298 No HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Naser Nasiri nasiri.epi@gmail.com 200319475328460072299 200319475328460072299 No HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Soheil Mehmandoost soheilmeh1994@gmail.com 200319475328460072300 200319475328460072300 No HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Mehrdad Khezri mehrdadkhezry@yahoo.com 200319475328460072301 200319475328460072301 No HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Fatemeh Tavakoli fatemehtavakoli98@yahoo.com 200319475328460072302 200319475328460072302 No HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Hamid Sharifi hsharifi@kmu.ac.ir 200319475328460072303 200319475328460072303 No HIV/STI Surveillance Research Center, and WHO Collaborating Center for HIV Surveillance, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran