This study assessed the incidence of mortality on UTT program in comparison with the CD4 and WHO staging of HIV infected patients initiated ART treatment in health facilities of Gamo, South Omo, and Gofa Zone. The incidence of death was significantly higher in the CD4-based and WHO stage program than in the UTT program. It may be because patients on CD4 based and WHO staging after developing serious opportunistic infection(13).
Patients in the UTT law mortality survive a longer period than patients enrolled in the CD4-based and WHO staging program. On universal test and treat program makes patients get medical support in the early stages of infection the response to treatment will be better(14).
In the intervening time, early treatment and prophylaxis prevent the development of fatal opportunistic infections. So that the survival of patients in the test and treat program is longer(7) The same as sound preceding studies reported that before time appearance and medical care increases the survival of patients (14,15,).
It has to be noted that patients who were enrolled under CD4 and WHO staging program were not followed until their CD4 count or WHO stage meet them were eligible to be enrolled for treatment. Though patients on the UTT program were enrolled for treatment soon after diagnosis, consequently these time lapses between diagnosis and enrolment for treatment would have an impact on continued existence time differences.
Cumulative incidence of mortality was significantly higher among patients enrolled in CD4 and WHO clinical staging programs compared to patients enrolled in the UTT program. This can be explained by the increased risk of opportunistic infections, treatment failure, and drug side effects which are more common in the CD4 and WHO clinical stage(16, 20).
During the follow-up period, 42 (5.3%) patients died. A lower rate of death was observed in the UTT cohort. The proportion of death in our case is lower than many other studies (15, 23, 18) There is also another current study that has reported a lower AIDS-related death rate in Ethiopia (13). This could be to some extent attributed to the belongings of UTT program implementation in Ethiopia.
WHO clinical stage, functional status, Program of ART, New opportunistic infection, Adherence to ART drugs, and Initiation of IPT are significant to contribute mortality in ART users.
WHO clinical staging scheme was developed by WHO in 1990, and it emphasizes clinical parameters as a guideline for clinical decision making (19). Many studies show that mortality of HIV-positive individuals with advanced clinical stage is higher than mild clinical stage (20, 21, 22). In this study, the baseline functional status bedridden was five-times higher than those whose baseline functional status was working and ambulatory(AHR: 5;95%CI (2.08–12.01). This is similar to other studies' baseline functional status bedridden was reduce the survival time (22, 23, 24).
The study show hazard of death in CD4 and WHO based enrolled individuals were four times higher than those who enrolled in UTT program (AHR:3.79;95CI (1.59–8.99). This is in line with other studies(13). This could be the low prevalence of co-infection, low probability of drug interaction, and side effects like IRIS, for this reason, the UTT program hazard of mortality has been reduced. In the same way, the risk of death in patients who developed new OIs was three times higher than those who did not develop new OIs (AHR:3.41 (95% CI (1.59–7.29).
The indicated that the risk of mortality among adult ART users who had non-adherence to ART drugs had four times higher as compared with those who had adherence to ART drugs (AHR: 4.86; 95%CI: 2.43,9.73). Similar findings were reported in other studies conducted in Indiana and Addis Ababa Ethiopia(25, 26). The reason behind this might be when the adult takes ART drugs adherently viral replication was suppressed which results from an increase in CD4 cells and increase the survival of ART user. On the other hand, ART user who was unable to take ART drugs adherently had come up with many problems such as treatment failure, a resistance strain which resulted in death outcome (27).
The initiation of isoniazid preventive therapy had a protective effect against death among HIV-positive individuals. In line with the study conducted in South Africa and Nigeria(28). A study conducted Northwest Ethiopia INH user individuals were 92% at lower risk of developing TB compared to those never on INH and 0.08 times less likely to develop mortality among for ART (AHR:0.08;95%CI:0.02,0.37) (29). This study revealed that adult ART users who did not initiate isoniazid preventive therapy had three times higher risk of mortality as compared with their counterparts who initiated isoniazid preventive therapy (AHR: 3.7; 95%CI: 1.77, 7.96). This could be because IPT decreases mycobacterium load and reduces the progression of latent bacilli to active TB(30).