Abstract:
Background: Early diagnosis of HIV infection in infants is recognizing HIV infection early
using age-appropriate test before or at six weeks of age. It is important since they are among
those most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and without treatment, about one third of children living
with HIV die by their first birthday and half by age two years. Early infant diagnosis for HIV
infection is one of the services incorporated in PMTCT program in Ethiopia, in which much is
not known regarding the extent of early diagnosis of infants and various associated factors.
Objective: To asses proportion of early infant diagnosis and associated factors among tested
HIV exposed infants in West Shoa Zone, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia, 2018.
Methods: Facility based cross sectional study was done among 342 HIV exposed infants who
were enrolled and tested in January 01, 2014-December 30, 2017 in infant diagnosis service
providing health facilities. The study was conducted from March 10-April 22, 2018. Data was
collected by document review using checklist for quantitative data and in-depth interview and
observation by using semi structured questionnaire for qualitative data. Data was cleaned, coded
and entered into the EpiData manager and exported to SPSS version 22 for analysis. Bivariate
and multivariable logistic regression analyses were carried out. Statistical significance was
declared by the confidence interval.
Result: Fifty eight percent of HIV exposed infants were diagnosed early. Having children less
than four (AOR=4.69, 95% CI: 2.55-8.64), disclosing of mothers HIV sero-status (AOR=6.28,
95% CI: 3.42-11.57), having linkage to mothers support group (AOR=2.24, 95% CI: 1.25-4) and
infants who received Neverapine prophylaxis (AOR=6.05, 95% CI: 2.48-14.73) were significant
predictors of HIV exposed infants early HIV diagnosis.
Conclusion: About two third of HIV exposed infants in the study area were diagnosed before
and at six weeks of age but, it was unacceptably low. Special attention is required for infants
born to HIV-infected women who have four and above living children, doesn‟t disclose their
HIV status and in improving mothers‟ supportive group linkage and insuring availability of the
group; also starting neverapine prophylaxis early in order to improve early infant diagnosis of an
HIV exposed infant.
