Assessment of the current status of HIV virus and predisposing factors among students at Dilla University and Dilla Referral Hospital, Ethiopia

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cannot be transmitted by causal contact, air, food and water. People with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome have human immunodeficiency virus in their blood and body fluids that can enter the blood stream of an uninfected person upon contact with infected body fluids or sexual contact with an infected person. Primary data was collected by using structured questionnaire, interviewing and reviewing secondary data from Dilla Referral Hospita. Majority of students 137 (67.15%) had an idea on HIV virus that it is not curable and a deadly killer disease while 36 (17.64%) had an idea on HIV that it is curable. Majority of students (158, 77.46%) had discussed about HIV/AIDS with other people. Accordingly to the information in the questionnaire by the Dilla University students, most of the students (96.00%) had heard about HIV/AIDS. Majority of students heard and got information about HIV from mass media followed by health center, books, and combination of all lists, parents and friends: 46.00, 18.00, 12.00, 10.00, 6.00 and 2.00%, respectively. According to the secondary date obtained from Dilla Referral Hospital, the majority of  the people that live with HIV virus were of the productive age (15-49 age) group in both male and female. Among these the number of female infected with HIV were higher than for male: 42.63, 44.35, 37.76, 44.37, 42.70, 37.62 and 40.40%, and 49.38, 52.17, 46.90, 44.70, 44.32, 52.47 and 39.40%, respectively for each year from 2008-2014. Therefore, HIV virus prevalence among Dilla Referral Hospital patients was on the decrease, and the students of Dilla University were very aware of HIV from well gathered information from different sources and also discussed with their partners.    Key words: Dilla University, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), prevalence, sexual, students.