RESUMO
A retrospective study was conducted to examine trends in HIV-1 prevalence among visa applicants between the years 1993 to 2001 in Urban Ethiopia. A total of 63,869 visa applicants were screened during these nine years period. The majority of them (79.5%) were females. Their mean age was 31.6 and 25.7 years for males and females, respectively. HIV-1 prevalence ranged from 6.8% in 1993 to 10.4% in 1997 (test for trend: p<0.001), while it seems stabilized at around 11% after 1997. The overall period prevalence was 9.5%. The peak prevalence was documented in the age group 25-29 for females (12.1%) while it was in the age group 30-34 for males (11.4%). This study, therefore, confirms the severity of the HIV-1 epidemic in the country. Visa applicants can be used as a sentinel population for monitoring trends in HIV-1 prevalence in the country, although additional socio-demographic information would be useful for better interpretation of such data.