Recent HIV infection and associated factors among newly diagnosed HIV cases in the Southwest Ethiopia Regional State: HIV case-based surveillance analysis (2019-2022)

Globally, there were an estimated 39 million people living with HIV with 1.3 million new HIV infections by the end of 2023. The Sub-Saharan Africa accounted 51% of new HIV infections. HIV case-based Surveillance collects data on newly diagnosed HIV cases, recent HIV infections, and other sentinel events, aiding evidence-based decision making. There is limited evidence on these in Ethiopia. The objective of this study is to determine the incidence proportion of recent infections and associated factors among newly diagnosed HIV cases and their distribution by person, place, and time in the Southwest Ethiopia Regional State. A retrospective analysis was conducted on HIV case-based surveillance dataset (July 2019 to June 2022) from the Southwest Ethiopia Regional State. Recent HIV infection is an infection that acquired within the last 12 months as diagnosed by Asante recency test kits. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26. ArcGIS version 10.8 was used for mapping recent infections. Logistic regression was employed to identify factors associated with recent infections. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, variables with p-value