Do people with selenium deficiency get sicker from HIV in the DRC?

We are working on a project whose outcome is to teach the COVID-19 lessons learned. Our trial is registered at clinicaltrails.gov identifier NCT04424940. In Flanders a large part of the population has a selenium deficiency. Also many absorb too little selenium through food and the selenium status in their blood is often lower than recommended. In Western Europe selenium deficiencies have already been diagnosed in the elderly obese and those with a weakened immune system. In DRC we don''t have the funds to assess if people with selenium deficiency get sicker from the COVID-19. Our approach is uncertain as we will not examine whether the selenium status in the blood can help predict the course of the disease after infection with COVID-19. But with HIV extra selenium is already being administered. We teach previous studies with a link between selenium deficiency and HIV we clarify the possible role of adequate selenium status in the disease course of HIV as the selenium status in the blood of the most severely affected COVID-19 patients including the elderly obese people and a weakened immune system has not yet been investigated. So we contributed indirectly to COVID-19.