Prevalence and Determinants of HIV among Symptomatic STI Cases in Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Regional States, Ethiopia

Background: Recognition of HIV/STI co infection has tremendous contribution for targeted intervention. Sexually transmitted infections have far reaching health, social and economic consequences. Sexually transmitted infections are very important because of their potential complication and interaction with HIV/AIDS. By evaluating the HIV/STI co infection it will be a signal to know the affected groups and major determinants. In doing so, the study finding would help in the planning, resource allocation and designed targeted prevention and control program. Objective: To determine the prevalence and determinants of HIV among symptomatic STI cases. Methods: Cross-sectional survey was conducted for HIV Sero prevalence and determinants among 415 symptomatic new STI cases that had been attended for treatment in eight hospitals in SNNPR, Ethiopia from November, 2011 to February, 2012. Standard rapid HIV antibody test was used to screen the sample blood following the national rapid HIV testing algorithm. Results: The overall HIV sero positivity was found to be 10.6%. Among 415 samples 371(89.4%) were negative and 44(10.6%) turned out to be positive.( Table 4) The rate varies among the major STI syndromes, namely, Urethral discharge syndrome (18.2%), vaginal discharge syndrome (56.8%), genital ulcer syndrome (15.9%), and lower abdominal pain (9.1%). (Table 4)Limitation of the study: Limitation of this study is the use of rapid HIV test kits which fails to detect recent infection. Moreover, the study is hospital based it can’t be representative of the whole population, Conclusion and Recommendation: High prevalence of HIV in STI patients is explained by the role of STI in predisposing for HIV transmission which offers a unique opportunity for strengthening the prevention of HIV/STI co infection putting in place routine HIV test. Furthermore, public health intervention on consistent condom use and partner notification and referral should be given due emphasis targeted to the most at risk population.