Magnitude of HIV and associated factors among antenatal care pregnant women at public hospitals of eastern zone Tigray Ethiopia, 2025 G.C

Background: HIV infection is mainly transmitted via sexual contact and mother to child during pregnancy, delivery and breast feeding and among avertable infection; it is significantly contributor to adverse birth outcomes of pregnancy worldwide particularly in low and middle income countries. Sub-Saharan African countries including Ethiopia are among affected areas with HIV infection. Ethiopia is currently providing and demonstrating strategies aimed to ending AIDS death, to eliminate new infection of HIV and elimination of MTCT of HIV particularly in pregnant women by 2030, as part of Sustainable Development goals. Hence, this study aimed to assess the magnitudes of HIV infection and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care at public hospitals of eastern zone, Tigray, Ethiopia during the period 2024/25. Methods - Institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted at public hospitals of eastern zone, Tigray, Ethiopia. Initially hospitals were selected via simple random sampling then pregnant women were selected using a systematic random sampling technique. Interviewer questionnaire and chart reviews were used to collect data. Data was collected using kobo collect tool, cleaned using Excel and analyzed in SPSSV23.0. Descriptive statistics was used to assess the magnitude of HIV and binary logistic regression was used to determine associated factors. Variables with p-value less than 0.25 were transferred to multivariable analysis. Variables with P-value<0.05 were used to declare statistical significance. Result :-The magnitude of HIV infection among pregnant women was 11.4 % with (95% CI,8.4-14.4). This study showed 64% of the pregnant women who reported history of sexually forced or raped were found to be living with HIV infection. Significant associated factors for HIV prevalence were history of sexually Forced /raped within five years, women with STI history within one year, number of sexual partners in her life and women had Sign and symptoms of STI. Conclusion: The present study found significant high rate of HIV infection among pregnant women and history of sexually Forced /raped within last five years were also among significant influential associated factors to this high prevalence.