Human Immune Deficiency Virus Serostatus and Associated Factors Among Children of Adult Index Cases in Northern Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION: Children whose parents with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and family of index clients are at high risk of HIV infection. Family testing is an efficient and effective way of identifying children’s HIV. The number of children becoming newly infected with HIV remains unacceptably high. This study is to assess human immune deficiency, virus serostatus, and associated factors among children of adult index cases in central Tigrai, Northern Ethiopia, 2019. METHODS: An institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted to select a total of 454 index cases from February 01 to April 30, 2019. Data were collected from adult clients on antiretroviral treatment who have children using administered questionnaires and data extraction from the hospital antiretroviral register. Simple random sampling was used to select the index cases using the medical record number. Binary logistic regression analysis, odds ratio, and 95% confidence interval were used to determine the strength of association between dependent and independent variables. Statistical significance was declared a P-value <0.05. RESULTS: The prevalence of HIV in children from family index case testing was 8.9% with 95% CI (6.5–11.6). Female index clients [AOR=0.18, 95% CI: 06-0.55], the age of the child [AOR=0.86, 95% CI: 0.76, 0.97], importance of HIV testing [AOR=5.20, 95% CI: 2.2011.96], and discussion HIV testing [AOR=3.22, 95% CI: 1.5–16.84]. Participants who did not discuss HIV were 3.2 more likely have HIV positive child than who discussed with family members. CONCLUSION: The majority of the index clients test their children, but the prevalence rate of HIV in children from family index case testing is high. Strategies should be developed on how to communicate with household members about HIV.