The African country of Ethiopia is known to have 1st recorded HIV in the year 1984 and 1986 saw the 1st cases on AIDS and this led to the development of the HIV/AIDS department in the Ministry of Health including a surveillance system being established in 1988. Presently there are 34 HIV sentinel surveillance which report to the Ministry of Health. Unfortunately the rural population remains uncovered by the current system despite the 85% of the population living in the rural areas. During the 1990s HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia increased as in 1989 prevalence of HIV among the adult population was estimated at 2.7 percent, and increased to 7.1 percent in 1997 and to 7.3 percent in the year 2000.
Despite a considerable decrease in HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia the MOH can’t predict that the HIV epidemic in Ethiopia is declining. In the early stages of HIV/AIDS there was a major effort to conduct surveys in Addis Ababa and other major urban centers. The Ethiopian Red Cross Society-Blood Transfusion Service collects and reports HIV prevalence data among blood donors since 1987 and there has been a decrease in HIV prevalence among blood donors. According to data of Ethiopia heterosexual and MTCT transmission account for almost all HIV infections while HIV transmission through unsafe injections appears to be very less.
Soon after the establishment of the HIV/AIDS department within the MOH AIDS case reporting began in 1987 otherwise grossly AIDS cases go underreported and among women AIDS cases peak between ages 20 and 29; for men, between ages 25 to 34. ANC data states that the group with the highest HIV prevalence in the country is women aged from 15 to 24 and HIV prevalence among men peaks between ages 25 and 29 according to the data from blood donors, visa applicants, and police and army recruits. In most of urban Ethiopia HIV/AIDS began in the mid-1980s and in rural Ethiopia the epidemic began in the early 1990s while data are highly inadequate to capture the dynamics of the epidemic in the rural areas.
The political history, civil war, conflicts of Ethiopia with Eritrea, and current food crisis also affect dynamics of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. HIV/AIDS is not a major factor underlying the food crisis in Ethiopia unlike in southern Africa. The Ethiopian women having little power in sexual negotiation with their husbands tend to live in a polygamous union while the aspects of poverty and unemployment increased trafficking of Ethiopian women. Know more about HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia as sitagita keeps you updated about the HIV/AIDS in the world.
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