Patients-to-healthcare workers HIV transmission risk from sharp injuries, Southern Ethiopia

Background: Accidental needlestick injury rate among healthcare workers in Hawassa is extremely high. Epidemiological findings proved the infectious potential of this injury contaminated with a Human  Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-infected patient’s blood.Objective: This study aimed at estimating the risk of HIV transmission from patients to healthcare workers in Hawassa City, Ethiopia.Method: A probabilistic risk model was employed. Scenario-based assumptions were made for the values of parameters following areview of published reports between 2007 and 2010.Parameters: HIV prevalence, needlestick injury rate, exposure rate, sero-conversion rate, risk of HIV transmission and cumulative risk of HIV transmission.Finding: Generally, healthcare workers in Hawassa are considered to be at a relatively low (0.0035%) occupational risk of contracting HIV – less than 4 in 100,000 of healthcare workers in the town (1 in 28,751 workers a year). The 30 years’ maximum cumulative risk estimate is approximately five healthcare workers per 1000 workers in the study area. Still, this small number should be considered a serious matter requiring post-exposure prophylaxis following exposure to unsafe medical practice leading to HIV infection

Effects of Gibberellic acid and 2,4-Dichlorophenoxy Acetic Acid Spray on Vegetative Growth, Fruit Anatomy and Seed Setting of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

The experiment was conducted at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia with the objective to evaluate the effects of different  concentrations and combinations of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and gibberellic acid (GA3) spray on vegetative and reproductive growth components of tomato. The experiment consists of two tomato varieties, one processing (Roma VF) and one fresh market (Fetan), three levels of 2,4-D (0, 5 and 10 ppm) and four levels of GA3 (0, 10, 15 and 20 ppm)arranged in 2x3x4 factorial combinations, in Randomized Completed Block design with three replications. Data were collected on qualitative  parameters (vegetative, reproductive growth and external fruit color) through visual observation, and quantitative parameters (seed number per fruit, seed weight per fruit, fruit shape index and average fruit weight). Qualitative data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) by SAS (2002) software and mean separation was carried out by DMRT at 5% probability level. The result indicated that tomato plant treated with 2,4-D intended to have increased stem thickness, decreased leaf size induced epinastic and flower bud abscission in both cultivars while GA3 treatment has no retarded growth and flower bud abscission. Application of 2,4-D has responsible in the development of seedless parthenocarpic fruit with  increased size but with unfilled cavities especially at higher concentration. On the other hand, GA3 at lower concentration results in normal fruit and seed development but as its concentration increases it results in the development of more proportion of smaller fruits per plant and formation of blotchy ripening on the fruit. Combined application of the two PGRs at lowers concentrations seems to result in the intermediate effects of both PGRs in single application. In general, concentration of the PGRs used and genetic background of the variety determine the response of tomato growth, fruit setting, seed formation and final marketable fruit size

Decentralization and Local Institutional Arrangements for Wetland Management in Ethiopia and Sierra Leone.

In Ethiopia and Sierra Leone, recent social, political and environmental transformations have precipitated the intensification of wetland use, as local people have sought to safeguard and strengthen their livelihoods. Concurrent decentralization policies in both countries have also seen the government strengthen its position at the local level. Drawing upon recent field-based evidence from Ethiopia and Sierra Leone, this paper examines the compatibility between community-based local institutions for wetland use, and the process of decentralization. It argues that decentralization has in fact restricted the development of mature local institutional arrangements, due to its intrinsically political interventionist nature

Nutrition profiles of farm households across different farming systems in Ethiopia: Unpacking the determinants and implications for nutrition-sensitive interventions

Tackling nutrition insecurity remains a critical challenge in developing countries. In the predominantly rain-fed and smallholder-based farming systems of Ethiopia, production diversity and livelihood strategies of the farm households vary across geographic areas. However, the effects of household socioeconomic characteristics, production diversity, and household incomes on nutrition profiles in distinct settings have been inadequately understood. Therefore, this study was undertaken to examine the association of farming system type, sources of income, and household wealth status with household nutrition profiles in three remote locations such as Mennisa, Welmel Tiqa, and Agam Wuha that represent root crops-based farming, maize-based semi-pastoral farming, and teff-based cereal farming systems, respectively. A combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques was employed. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select a total of 265 smallholder households for the structured survey interviews. Standard statistical tests and Tobit regression analyses were performed after determining the wealth category of each household. Results revealed a diversity of income sources used by each of the farm households with average values of 9 in Mennisa, 10 in Agam Wuha, and 11 in Welmel Tiqa, with the contributions of each income source varying by household wealth category and location. As expected, expenditures on food significantly exceeded those on non-food categories for poor households and vice versa for rich wealth households. The average total food variety score (FVS) for Welmel Tiqa was twice that for Agam Wuha, confirming the need for site-specific nutrition profile assessments. Despite the observed differences in household nutrition profiles among wealth categories and locations, the apparent intakes of vitamin A, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and calcium were consistently below the population-level estimated average requirements across all locations. The number of adequately consumed nutrients by farm households was negatively associated with family size, age of household heads, livestock holdings, wealth categories, and irrigation use, and positively associated with crop production diversity, income diversity, and FVS. The negative association between irrigation use and nutrition security was likely due to the focus on producing crops with a high market value on land under irrigation, coupled with ineffective allocation of generated income for enhancing household nutritional outcomes. Therefore, programs that include irrigated agriculture investments should consider adopting a more integrated nutrition-sensitive interventions, including consideration of locally adapted nutritious crops, such as orange-flesh sweet potato, to address critical deficiency of Vitamin A, nutrition training coupled with development of recipes and cooking demonstrations, and marketing and promotion for nutritious crops

National mortality burden due to communicable, non-communicable, and other diseases in Ethiopia, 1990–2015: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Background: Ethiopia lacks a complete vital registration system that would assist in measuring disease burden and risk factors. We used the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk factors 2015 (GBD 2015) estimates to describe the mortality burden from communicable, non-communicable, and other diseases in Ethiopia over the last 25 years. Methods: GBD 2015 mainly used cause of death ensemble modeling to measure causes of death by age, sex, and year for 195 countries. We report numbers of deaths and rates of years of life lost (YLL) for communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) disorders, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and injuries with 95% uncertainty intervals (UI) for Ethiopia from 1990 to 2015. Results: CMNN causes of death have declined by 65% in the last two-and-a-half decades. Injury-related causes of death have also decreased by 70%. Deaths due to NCDs declined by 37% during the same period. Ethiopia showed a faster decline in the burden of four out of the five leading causes of age-standardized premature mortality rates when compared to the overall sub-Saharan African region and the Eastern sub-Saharan African region: lower respiratory infections, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and diarrheal diseases; however, the same could not be said for ischemic heart disease and other NCDs. Non-communicable diseases, together, were the leading causes of age-standardized mortality rates, whereas CMNN diseases were leading causes of premature mortality in 2015. Although lower respiratory infections, tuberculosis, and diarrheal disease were the leading causes of age-standardized death rates, they showed major declines from 1990 to 2015. Neonatal encephalopathy, iron-deficiency anemia, protein-energy malnutrition, and preterm birth complications also showed more than a 50% reduction in burden. HIV/AIDS-related deaths have also decreased by 70% since 2005. Ischemic heart disease, hemorrhagic stroke, and ischemic stroke were among the top causes of premature mortality and age-standardized death rates in Ethiopia in 2015. Conclusions: Ethiopia has been successful in reducing deaths related to communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional deficiency diseases and injuries by 65%, despite unacceptably high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. However, the country’s performance regarding non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory disease, was minimal, causing these diseases to join the leading causes of premature mortality and death rates in 2015. While the country is progressing toward universal health coverage, prevention and control strategies in Ethiopia should consider the double burden of common infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases: lower respiratory infections, diarrhea, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. Prevention and control strategies should also pay special attention to the leading causes of premature mortality and death rates caused by non-communicable diseases: cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. Measuring further progress requires a data revolution in generating, managing, analyzing, and using data for decision-making and the creation of a full vital registration system in the country

Dataset for SERS plasmonic array: Width, spacing, and thin film oxide thickness optimization

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) improves the scope and power of Raman spectroscopy by taking advantage of plasmonic nanostructures, which have the potential to enhance Raman signal strength by several orders of magnitude, which can allow for the detection of analyte molecules. The dataset presented provides results of a computational study that used a finite element method (FEM) to model gold nanowires on a silicon dioxide substrate. The survey calculated the surface average of optical surface enhancement due to plasmonic effects across the entire model and studied various geometric parameters regarding the width of the nanowires, spacing between the nanowires, and thickness of the silicon dioxide substrate. From this data, enhancement values were found to have a periodicity due to the thickness of the silicon dioxide. Additionally, strong plasmonic enhancement for smaller distances between nanowires were found, as expected; however, additional surface enhancement at greater gap distances were observed, which were not anticipated, possibly due to resonance with periodic dimensions and the frequency of the light. This data presentation will benefit future SERS studies by probing further into the computational and mathematical material presented previously

Assessment of Improved Tef (Eragrostis tef L.) Varieties for Yield and Yield Related Traits at Nono Benja and Cheliya Districts, Oromia, Ethiopia

Tef (Eragrostis tef) is one of the most important and strategic cereal crop grown to drought prone areas of Ethiopia. Genetic variability, genotypic correlations and yield components are prerequisite for selection of crop breeding, cultivation of improved varieties that provides optimum seed yield is one of the major constraints of the crop. The present study was aimed to investigate the adaptive and best performing tef varieties based on their yield and related traits under rain fed conditions at Nono Benja and Celia districts in Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted by using split plot design with three replications, sixteen improved varieties and one local landrace. The combined analysis of variance revealed that varieties were significantly different for studied characters except panicle length, total tiller number and spikelet length. The mean yields of nine improved  varieties (Dukem, Asgori, Tesfa, Negus, Quncho, Kora, Koye, Boset and key tena) were relatively higher than the local check comparing with mean values of grain yield ranged from Welkomi (372.08 kg/ ha) to Dukem (1315.41 kg/ ha).Grain yields were studied high in four varieties across two locations were (Dukem (1315.4 kg/ ha), asgori (1279.6 kg/ ha), Tesfa (1206.02 kg/ ha), Negus (1072.61 kg/ ha) with 72.8%, 68.2%, 58.5 %, and 41% over local check. The genotypic coefficient variation was observed that from 4.6% to 82.9% for loading index and the phenotypic coefficient variation range from 5.8% to 91.0% for loading index at Cheliya, respectively, the fertilizer application (0, 60/40 P/N kgha-1) showed highly differences among all traits except in GFP, PH and TGW traits. The varieties Gibe, Koye, Boset, Gimbichu, Enat and Kora were observed highly strong association with the environment, similarly Asgori and Gedo varieties were showed highly significant and strong connection with the environment Nono Benja with fertilization. Results reveal that the correlation studies provide a better understanding of yield components during the selection of tef genotypes

Assessment of Improved Tef (Eragrostis tef L.) Varieties for Yield and Yield Related Traits at Nono Benja and Cheliya Districts, Oromia, Ethiopia

Tef (Eragrostis tef) is one of the most important and strategic cereal crop grown to drought prone areas of Ethiopia. Genetic variability, genotypic correlations and yield components are prerequisite for selection of crop breeding, cultivation of improved varieties that provides optimum seed yield is one of the major constraints of the crop. The present study was aimed to investigate the adaptive and best performing tef varieties based on their yield and related traits under rain fed conditions at Nono Benja and Celia districts in Ethiopia. The experiment was conducted by using split plot design with three replications, sixteen improved varieties and one local landrace. The combined analysis of variance revealed that varieties were significantly different for studied characters except panicle length, total tiller number and spikelet length. The mean yields of nine improved  varieties (Dukem, Asgori, Tesfa, Negus, Quncho, Kora, Koye, Boset and key tena) were relatively higher than the local check comparing with mean values of grain yield ranged from Welkomi (372.08 kg/ ha) to Dukem (1315.41 kg/ ha).Grain yields were studied high in four varieties across two locations were (Dukem (1315.4 kg/ ha), asgori (1279.6 kg/ ha), Tesfa (1206.02 kg/ ha), Negus (1072.61 kg/ ha) with 72.8%, 68.2%, 58.5 %, and 41% over local check. The genotypic coefficient variation was observed that from 4.6% to 82.9% for loading index and the phenotypic coefficient variation range from 5.8% to 91.0% for loading index at Cheliya, respectively, the fertilizer application (0, 60/40 P/N kgha-1) showed highly differences among all traits except in GFP, PH and TGW traits. The varieties Gibe, Koye, Boset, Gimbichu, Enat and Kora were observed highly strong association with the environment, similarly Asgori and Gedo varieties were showed highly significant and strong connection with the environment Nono Benja with fertilization. Results reveal that the correlation studies provide a better understanding of yield components during the selection of tef genotypes

Global, regional, and national burden of tuberculosis, 1990–2016: results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors 2016 Study

Background Although a preventable and treatable disease, tuberculosis causes more than a million deaths each year. As countries work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target to end the tuberculosis epidemic by 2030, robust assessments of the levels and trends of the burden of tuberculosis are crucial to inform policy and programme decision making. We assessed the levels and trends in the fatal and non-fatal burden of tuberculosis by drug resistance and HIV status for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2016. Methods We analysed 15 943 site-years of vital registration data, 1710 site-years of verbal autopsy data, 764 site-years of sample-based vital registration data, and 361 site-years of mortality surveillance data to estimate mortality due to tuberculosis using the Cause of Death Ensemble model. We analysed all available data sources, including annual case notifications, prevalence surveys, population-based tuberculin surveys, and estimated tuberculosis cause-specific mortality to generate internally consistent estimates of incidence, prevalence, and mortality using DisMod-MR 2.1, a Bayesian meta-regression tool. We assessed how the burden of tuberculosis differed from the burden predicted by the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, average years of schooling, and total fertility rate. Findings Globally in 2016, among HIV-negative individuals, the number of incident cases of tuberculosis was 9·02 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8·05–10·16) and the number of tuberculosis deaths was 1·21 million (1·16–1·27). Among HIV-positive individuals, the number of incident cases was 1·40 million (1·01–1·89) and the number of tuberculosis deaths was 0·24 million (0·16–0·31). Globally, among HIV-negative individuals the age-standardised incidence of tuberculosis decreased annually at a slower rate (–1·3% [–1·5 to −1·2]) than mortality did (–4·5% [–5·0 to −4·1]) from 2006 to 2016. Among HIV-positive individuals during the same period, the rate of change in annualised age-standardised incidence was −4·0% (–4·5 to −3·7) and mortality was −8·9% (–9·5 to −8·4). Several regions had higher rates of age-standardised incidence and mortality than expected on the basis of their SDI levels in 2016. For drug-susceptible tuberculosis, the highest observed-to-expected ratios were in southern sub-Saharan Africa (13·7 for incidence and 14·9 for mortality), and the lowest ratios were in high-income North America (0·4 for incidence) and Oceania (0·3 for mortality). For multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, eastern Europe had the highest observed-to-expected ratios (67·3 for incidence and 73·0 for mortality), and high-income North America had the lowest ratios (0·4 for incidence and 0·5 for mortality). Interpretation If current trends in tuberculosis incidence continue, few countries are likely to meet the SDG target to end the tuberculosis epidemic by 2030. Progress needs to be accelerated by improving the quality of and access to tuberculosis diagnosis and care, by developing new tools, scaling up interventions to prevent risk factors for tuberculosis, and integrating control programmes for tuberculosis and HIV