Correction: Delayed ART initiation in "Test and Treat era" and its associated factors among adults receiving antiretroviral therapy at public health institutions in Northwest Ethiopia: A multicenter cross-sectional study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271127.].

Delayed ART initiation in "Test and Treat era" and its associated factors among adults receiving antiretroviral therapy at public health institutions in Northwest Ethiopia: A multicenter cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has shown promising effects on the reduction of new HIV infection as well as HIV-related morbidity and mortality. In order to boost the effect of ART on ending HIV epidemics by 2030, the World Health Organization (WHO) indeed introduced a universal test and treat strategy in 2015 that recommends rapid (within seven days) initiation of ART for all HIV-positive patients. However, in low-income countries, a substantial number of HIV-positive patients were not enrolled in time, and information on delayed ART initiation status in Ethiopia is limited. METHOD: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 HIV-positive adults receiving ART at public health institutions in Bahir Dar city, Northwest Ethiopia. A structured checklist was used to extract data from the patient's medical record. Data was entered into Epi-data version 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 26 for further analysis. Both simple and multivariable binary logistic regressions were executed, and variables with a p-value < 0.05 in the final model were considered significant predictors of delayed ART initiation. RESULTS: The magnitude of delayed ART initiation was 39% (95% CI: 34%-44%). Being male [Adjusted odds ratio(AOR) = 1.99, 95%CI:1.3-3.2], having opportunistic infections (OIs) [AOR = 2.50, 95%CI:1.4-4.6], having other chronic diseases [AOR = 3.70,95%CI:1.7-8.3], substance abuse [AOR = 3.79, 95%CI: 1.9-7.4], having ambulatory functional status [AOR = 5.38, 95%CI: 1.4-9.6] and didn't have other HIV-positive family member [AOR = 1.85, 95%CI: 1.2-2.9] increases the odds of delayed ART initiation. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: The burden of delayed ART initiation is found to be high. The presence of OIs and other chronic problems, substance abuse, ambulatory functional status, being male, and not having other HIV-positive family members were identified as significant predictors of delayed ART initiation. Special emphasis needs to be considered for those individuals with the identified risk factors.

Survival status and predictors of mortality among HIV-positive children initiated antiretroviral therapy in Bahir Dar town public health facilities Amhara region, Ethiopia, 2020.

BACKGROUND: Although there is a presence of governmental and non-governmental organizations running to provide quality HIV care services to reduce HIV-related mortality, there is rapid disease progression and death among children in developing countries including Ethiopia. Thus, this study was aimed to assess the mortality predictors of children living with HIV at Bahir Dar town public health facilities. METHOD: A facility-based retrospective follow-up study was conducted among 588 children who were enrolled in the HIV care clinic from 1 September 2010 to 30 August 2019. Data were entered into the Epi-Data entry 3.1 and then exported to STATA version 14 for analysis. Multiple imputation models were employed to handle missing data using the multivariate imputation Chained Equations technique. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve and log-rank test were used to estimate and compare the survival time of categorical variables. RESULT: About 27 (4.6%) (95% confidence interval: 2.9-6.5) deaths were observed from the 30,062.3 person-months follow-up period, and the overall incidence density rate of 0.9 per 1000 child-months (95% confidence interval: 0.6-1.3). Advanced WHO clinical stage (adjusted hazard ratio = 3.18; 95% confidence interval: 1.07-9.43), hemoglobin level less than 8 g/dL (adjusted hazard ratio = 3.54; 95% confidence interval: 1.27-8.85), children having a weight for age of <-2z (adjusted hazard ratio = 2.81; 95% confidence interval: 1.19-6.6), children with poor adherence (adjusted hazard ratio = 3.91; 95% confidence interval: 1.41-10.8), and starting the treatment beyond 1 week of being eligible (adjusted hazard ratio = 3.22; 95% confidence interval: 1.21-8.53) were predictors of HIV-related mortality among children initiated antiretroviral therapy. CONCLUSION: The hazard of mortality was higher among HIV-infected children in the early period of initiation. Enhancing antiretroviral therapy drug adherence, monitoring Hgb level, and timely initiation of antiretroviral therapy reduce HIV-related mortality.