Association of Khat and alcohol use with HIV infection and age at first sexual initiation among youths visiting HIV testing and counseling centers in Gamo-Gofa Zone, South West Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: HIV/AIDS is the major problem and an obstacle to both the health and development of people in Ethiopia today. It is also indicated that the use of substances have dramatically increased despite the serious concern about HIV infection. METHODS: Unmatched case control study was conducted in South West Ethiopia using a sample of 105 cases and 305 controls. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the degree of association between dependent and independent variables. RESULT: HIV infection was positively associated with being in the age of 20 – 24 years [OR & (95% CI) = 2.892 (1.266, 6.607)], being female [OR & (95% CI) = 2.013 (1.061, 3.822)], alcohol use [OR & (95% CI) = 5.883 (3.034, 11.408)], having no education [OR & (95% CI) = 3.193 (1.523, 6.695)] and primary education level [OR & (95% CI) = 3.160 (1.351, 7.388)]. Early sexual initiation was also positively associated with being not employed Adj. HR & (95% CI) = 7.372 (1.455, 37.357)], not having comprehensive knowledge on HIV/AIDS [Adj. HR & (95% CI) = 8.247 (2.121, 32.067)], alcohol use [Adj. HR & (95% CI) = 3.815 (1.315, 11.070)] and khat use [Adj. HR & (95% CI) = 7.241 (1.871, 28.016)]. CONCLUSION: Strategies should be designed to control the use of alcohol and khat which were found to be predictors of HIV infection and early sexual initiation in this study

Complementary feeding practice and its determinants among mothers with children 6 to 23 months of age in Finote Selam, Ethiopia

Introduction: the development of a child's full human potential requires adequate nourishment during infancy and early childhood. Under-nutrition is mostly caused by a lack of proper breastfeeding and supplemental feeding practices. After six months of age, when the incidence of growth faltering, micronutrient deficiencies and viral diseases is at its peak, children become stunted. This study aimed to assess complementary feeding practices and their determinants among mothers with children aged 6 to 23 months in Northwest Ethiopia. Methods: a community-based cross-sectional study on 414 caregivers was conducted using a systematic random sampling technique. Pre-tested interviewer-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were entered into Epi-Info version 3.5.1 and analyzed with SPSS version 21. Logistic regressions and frequency distribution were used. The strength of the association was measured using odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval. Results: out of 414 study participants, 201 (48.6%) practiced timely initiation of complementary feeding. Married women [AOR=2.87; 95% CI: (1.31-6.30)], radio owners [AOR=4.58; 95% CI:(2.48-8.46)], four or more ANC follow up times [AOR=1.99; 95% CI: (1.12-3.55)] and health institution delivery [AOR=2.56(1.21-5.42)] were all associated with timely initiation of complementary feeding. Conclusion: complementary feeding is not widely practiced in the study area. Complementary feeding should be promoted through institutional delivery, prenatal care follow-up, and mass media coverage. Through health information and communication, it is critical to improve the timing of the start of supplemental feeding

Scenario of Present and Future of Solid Waste Generation in Metro Cities of India

Rapid industrialization, urbanization, population growth and migration from the country side are resulted in Solid Waste generation, which is commonly considered as an Urban Issue.  It is highly related with Economic growth, degree of industrialization and consumption pattern and lavish lifestyle of city dwellers. Solid Waste generation and management is a burning issue all over the world and the planners and policy formulators are finding it extremely difficult to handle this problem mainly because of slapdash and unchecked urbanization. Solid Waste contributes 3% of total Green House Gases Emission Globally, which are culprit for Global Warming and Climate Change. Huge amount of Solid Waste generation and their improper management worsen the air quality in the urban areas which results in health problems. When the urbanization expands, the amount of municipal solid waste increases rapidly even faster than the rate of urbanization, one of the most important by-products of an urban lifestyle, is growing even faster than the rate of urbanization. Ten years ago there were 2.9 billion urban residents who generated about 0.64 kg of Municipal solid wastes per person per day (0.68 billion tons per year). Hence, today these amounts have increased to about 3 billion residents generating 1.2 kg per person per day (1.3 billion tons per year). By 2025 this will likely increase to 4.3 billion urban residents generating about 1.42 kg/capita/day of municipal solid waste (2.2 billion tons per year). The main aim of this paper is to quantify the present generation of Solid Waste and project the generation in future by projecting population growth in Metro Cities and find out the causative factors for the same. In the present study, an attempt has been made to provide a comprehensive review of the present infrastructure available, the future requirements to manage Municipal solid wastes and the Organizations and agencies involved in it. The main aim of this paper is to quantify the present generation of Solid Waste and project the generation in future by projecting population growth in Metro Cities and find out the causative factors for the same. Keywords: Solid Waste, Urbanization, Population, Green House Gases (GHGs

Effect of Wetland Degradation and Conversion on Carbon Stock: The Case of Tekuma Wetland, Lake Tana Sub-Basin, Ethiopia

Wetlands are considered as one of the major carbon sinkers that have significant positive effect on reducing the impact of climate change. However, the contribution of wetland to climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration is not well understood by the public. Many developed and developing countries signed in and supported the inclusion of agriculture and wetland projects in the Kyoto Protocol. But Ethiopian government has not yet tried to take advantage of this opportunity and start negotiations to use conservation and improvement of wetland’s carbon sequestration potential in the country to obtain carbon funds as an economic incentive for the communities involved. With this background, this research was designed to carry out an in-depth study on the impact of wetland degradation and conversion on carbon sequestration potential in Ethiopia. To meet the stated objectives stratified sampling techniques were used to select sampling sites from the wetland areas having varying wetland degradation level. For the determination of carbon levels in each area replicates of plant and soil samples were collected. The plant organic matter was determined using a loss-on-ignition method and then converted to carbon stock. Carbon stock and bulk density of the sampled soil was determined using Walkely-Black oxidation and gravimetric methods, respectively. ANOVA and mean separation were computed to indicate whether there is significant difference in carbon stock due to wetland degradation. The research findings showed significant difference (P<0.05) of carbon storage with different wetland degradation levels. Carbon stock in the soil was on average 24 times higher than carbon stock in plants in each respective wetland area having varying degradation level. The intact wetland was able to sequester579 t/ha of CO2as compared to converted farmlands and grazing lands that had only 230 and 295 t/ha of CO2, respectively. The result showed that by protecting wetlands more than double carbon could be stored as compared to grazing and farmlands. Thus, it is recommended that special attention should be given to minimize the conversion of wetlands and maximize their benefits through carbon funding

Application of GIS and Remote Sensing for Land Use and Land Cover Change in Kilite Awulalo, Tigray Ethiopia

This study examines the application of GIS and Remote Sensing in mapping Land Use and Land Cover change in Kilite Awulalo Woreda, Eastern Tigray Zone from 1972 to 2014. For this study, LANDSAT images of 1972 (Landsat-1 MSS); 1984 (Landsat-5 TM); 2000 (Landsat-7 ETM+) and 2014 (Landsat-8 OLI_TIRS) were used and analyzed using Arc GIS 10.1 and Erdas Imagine 13. Supervised classification scheme was used to classify the images. Under land use and land cover categories Agriculture land, Settlement land, Grazing land, Forest land, Bush land, Water bodies and Bare/stony land were studied. The result shows that Bush land was decreased from 1972 to 2014 which is 1972 (58007.88 hectare), 1984 (47900.79 hectare), 2000 (45000.1 hectare) and 2014 (40573.53 hectare) and forested land was decreased from the year 1984 (21706.65 hectare) to 2014 (11916.6 hectare). Agriculture and settlement area was increased from the year 1972 to 2014. Agriculture was increasing 13138.92, 20856.78, and 23000.09 to 30402.27 hectares from the year 1972, 1984, 2000 and 2014 respectively

Severity of Injury and Associated Factors among Injured Patients Who Visited the Emergency Department at Wolaita Sodo Teaching and Referral Hospital, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: An injury is a physical damage that occurs when the body is exposed to an excessive amount of energy. Physical agents, radiation, chemical agents, biological agents and physiological needs deprivation can cause injury. The study was aimed at assessing the severity of injury and identifying the factors associated with it among injured patients.METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients who visited the emergency department of Wolaita Sodo Teaching and Referral Hospital from January 1, 2012 -January 1, 2017. A total of 320 patient records were included in the study and selected using simple random sampling. Statistical association was done for categorical variables using Chi-square. Rank correlation was done for three ordered options independent variables, Chi-squared test for trend used for two options independent variables, and General Chi-square test of independence used for independent variables with not ordered three and above options. Multivariate multinomial logistic regression was conducted. A P-value &lt;0.05 was taken as a significant association.RESULTS: The study indicated that the majority (45.3%), 128(40%) and 47(14.7%) had minor, moderate and severe injury, respectively. Residence (AOR 0.462; 95%CI 0.268, 0.798), cause of injury (AOR 3.602; 95%CI 1.336, 9.714), night time injury (AOR 4.895; 95%CI 1.472, 16.277), afternoon time injury (AOR 8.776; 95%CI 2.699, 28.537), and chest injury (AOR 2.391; 95%CI 1.048, 5.454) were significant predictorsof moderate injury. Afternoon time of injury (AOR; 4.683; 95%CI 1.137, 19.296) and head, neck and spinal cord injury (AOR; 4.933; 95%CI 1.945, 12.509) were predictors of severe injury

Prevalence of antenatal depressive symptoms and associated factors among pregnant women in Maichew, North Ethiopia: an institution based study

Background: Antenatal depression is one of the common problems during pregnancy with a magnitude of 20% to 30% globally. It can negatively endanger women’s and off springs lives. As there are scarce reports on this area in Northern Ethiopia, it is important to carry out different studies that explore the magnitude of the problem and related factors in rural areas. The aim of this study is thus to assess the magnitude of antenatal depressive symptoms and associated factors among women at Maichew Town, North Ethiopia.Methods: A facility based cross sectional study was conducted among 196 pregnant women from April to June 2015. Pregnant women who had antenatal care follow-ups at the public health facilities were included in the study. Through proportional allocation to each facility, systematic random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. We used the local language version of Beck Depression Inventory to assess depressive symptoms with a cutoff point of 14 or more. Data was collected by trained Psychiatric Nurses; data entry and analysis were processed by SPSS window 20. The level of significance was determined using odds ratio and 95% confidence interval.Result: About 16.3% of the participants had never given birth before, and 46.4% and 42.3% were in the third and second trimesters of pregnancy respectively. Unwanted pregnancy was reported by 25.5% of the participants. Among those with previous pregnancy, 7.1% had previous obstetric complication. The magnitude of depression was 31.1%. Pregnant women with low level of income (AOR=3.66 (95%CI; 1.12, 11.96)), unmarried (AOR=4.07 (95% CI; 1.18, 14.04)) and house wives (AOR= 4.24 (1.38, 13.03)) were risk groups for depression.Conclusion: Antenatal depression is a common problem; thus screening activities of depression in antenatal care services should be emphasized with more concern to unmarried women, those with low level of income and house wives.Keywords: Antenatal depression, Mental Distress, Depression, Depression during pregnanc

Epidemiologic survey of respiratory symptoms among workers of small grain mills and others

Abstract: The prevalence of respiratory symptoms was compared in a grain dust exposed group of 57 grain mill workers and grain traders and an unexposed group of 181 civic, shop, snack bar and municipal labor workers in Kola Diba town using standard medical and occupational questionnaire. The two groups were comparable by age, sex and prevalence of smoking. Symptoms of expectoration and dyspnoea, cough, wheeze, chest tightness, sneezing and rhinnorhoea occurred significantly higher in the exposed than in the unexposed group. Recognizing Ethiopia’s predominant agricultural economy and an unavoidable expansion of small grain grinding mills in rural cooperatives and townships, the paper attempts to indicate the need for documenting the level of grain dust pollution and investigating its occupational health hazard. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 1998;12(3):213-215

Impact of small-scale irrigation schemes on household income and the likelihood of poverty in the Lake Tana basin of Ethiopia

This study uses Tobit and Logit models to examine the impacts of selected small-scale irrigation schemes in the Lake Tana basin of Ethiopia on household income and the likelihood of poverty, respectively. Data for these analyses were collected from a sample of 180 households. Households using any of the four irrigation systems had statistically significantly higher mean total gross household income than households not using irrigation. The marginal impact of small-scale irrigation on gross household income indicated that each small scale-irrigation user increased mean annual household income by ETB 3353 per year, a 27% increase over income for non-irrigating households. A Logit regression model indicated that access to irrigation significantly reduced the odds that a household would be in the lowest quartile of household income, the poverty threshold used in this study. Households using concrete canal river diversion had higher mean cropping income per household than those using other irrigation types. Key challenges to further enhancing the benefits of irrigation in the region include water seepage, equity of water distribution, availability of irrigation equipment, marketing of irrigated crops and crop diseases facilitated by irrigation practices

Using Computer Models to Design Gully Erosion Control Structures for Humid Northern Ethiopia

Mini-Symposium: Modeling Methodology for Agricultural Researc