Abstract:
Background: Visceral Leishmaniasis coinfection with HIV/AIDS has emerged as a series of disease pattern. It most
often results in unfavorable responses to treatment, frequent relapses, and deaths. Scarce data is available regarding
the prevalence of HIV and associated factors among Visceral Leishmaniasis coinfected patients. This study sought to
determine the prevalence of HIV and associated factors among Visceral Leishmaniasis infected patients.
Methods: Facility based cross-sectional study was conducted from October, 2015 to August, 2016 in Northwest
Ethiopia. Cluster sampling technique was used to select 462 Visceral Leishmaniasis infected patients. Serologic and
parasitological test results have been used to diagnose Visceral Leishmaniasis. The HIV diagnosis was based on the
national algorithm with two serial positive rapid test results. In case of discrepancy between the two tests, Uni-Gold
TM
was used as a tie breaker. Structured questionnaire was used to collect independent variables. Data was entered
by using Excel and analyzed by using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression model was used
to analyze the data.
Results: A total of 462 study participants were included in the study with a response rate of 92.4%. HIV and Visceral
Leishmaniasis coinfection was found to be 17.75% with 95% CI; 14.30–21.40. Age ≥ 30 years (AOR = 22.58, 95% CI 11.34,
45.01), urban residents (AOR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.16, 4.17) and daily laborer workers (AOR = 4.99, 95% CI 2.33, 10.68) were
significantly associated with HIV and Visceral Leishmaniasis coinfection.
Conclusion: HIV and Visceral Leishmaniasis coinfection in the Northwest Ethiopia was found to be low. Age, residence
and employment were independently associated with HIV-VL coinfection in the Northwest Ethiopia. It is better to
design interventions to prevent and control HIV-VL coinfection for productive age groups (age ≥ 30) and daily laborers.
Keywords: Visceral Leishmaniasis, Human immunodeficiency virus, Coinfection, Northwest Ethiopia
