The prevalence and associated factors of among HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals who attended voluntary counseling and testing center of St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study design.

BACKGROUND

and HIV are among the most common public health problems in Ethiopia. These infections are interrelated. causes genital ulcer which enhances HIV transmission and complicates HIV by causing severe ulcer among HIV-positive individuals. Although and HIV have a similar route of transmission, screening services for are not available in most of the voluntary counseling and testing centers.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to assess the seroprevalence of and sociodemographic factors among HIV-positive and HIV-negative individuals from the voluntary counseling and testing center of St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

METHODS

In this research, a cross-sectional study was conducted and a total of 292 consecutive samples were collected from the voluntary counseling and testing center of St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. A blood specimen was tested for the presence of using rapid plasma reagin and a rapid test kit for HIV. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20.

RESULTS

The overall prevalence of was 5/292 (1.7%). All HIV-positive clients were negative for . None of the risk factors were significantly associated with

CONCLUSION

In this study, the prevalence of was 5/292 (1.7%). None of the study participants were co-infected with and HIV.

RECOMMENDATION

There was a lack of association between syphilis and HIV in this study, but still the prevalence of among voluntary counseling and testing center clients is a public health problem. Therefore, infection control strategies should be designed in parallel with HIV control strategy and actions should be taken to avert the problem, including the provision of better health education and screening services at voluntary counseling and testing centers parallel with HIV.