Executive Summary
Background: HIV/AIDS remains one of the leading causes of communicable disease morbidity and mortality. Besides the health burden, it has negative macroeconomic effects due to decreased economic growth, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa countries (SSA); where the burden of HIV is concentrated. There is an ever-increasing interest in the demand for systematically documented evidence of the impact of interventions. Thus, it is important to generate rigorous evidence helpful for evaluating the performance of prevention and control programs. The current assessment seeks to supplement the existing evidence by addressing some of the gaps.
Objective: The general aim of the study is to assess and characterize HIV-associated mortality among PLHIV in care and document the progress in the national responses to epidemic control in Ethiopia, from 2015/16–2023.
Method: It was a facility-based study among people living with HIV (PLHIV) using secondary data. The hospitals and health centers was purposefully chosen from high-load ART facilities with regional representation in mind. All records of deceased PLHIV in care and treatment from 2015/16–2023; those PLHIV admitted to inpatient care from 2015/16–2023; and newly enrolled PLHIV from 2015/16–2023 was the study population. Routine health service data on patients enrolled in HIV care, deaths, admissions, and inpatient loads related to HIV was collected. The data was collected from patient charts, registration books, and an electronic medical record (EMR) for PLHIV enrolled in HIV care and/or admitted to the hospital.
Results:
Result 1: Mortality data from 2015/16 to 2023
Overall, from all the study sites, 10,848 deaths were recorded from EMR, with females making up slightly more than half (52%) from 2015/16–2023. The highest mortality occurred in individuals aged 35-54 years. Regarding the trend, deaths gradually increased from 2015/16 to 2020/21 and then declined slightly. Opportunistic infections (OIs) 3-6 months before the time of death was captured from the deceased patient’s card and Tuberculosis become the most frequent (44.1%), besides the highest

• • HIV Mortality report • Mortality among people living with HIV (PLHIV) survey • Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) • Hospitals and health centers across various regions in Ethiopia

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41366648/

The data management process for the EPHI HIV Mortality Survey involves a structured multi-stage workflow, beginning with the standardized collection of clinical data from hospitals and health centers across Ethiopia. Field teams extract patient-level information from electronic medical records (EMR), hospital admission logbooks, and individual patient charts using structured digital tools, ensuring consistent recording of key variables such as demographic profiles, ART history, comorbidities, and clinical outcomes. Following collection, the raw datasets undergo systematic cleaning and standardization—addressing issues like variable harmonization, date validation, and the consolidation of facility-level identifiers—to ensure consistency across diverse sites. Finally, these individual records are aggregated and validated to support robust epidemiological analysis, allowing researchers to accurately assess inpatient mortality trends, bed occupancy, and treatment trajectories among people living with HIV (PLHIV).

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