The status of medical laboratory towards of AFRO-WHO accreditation process in government and private health facilities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Introduction: The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) introduces a step  wise incremental accreditation approach to improving quality of laboratory and it is a new initiative in Ethiopia and activities are performed for implementation of accreditation program.Methods: Descriptive cross sectional study was conducted in 30 laboratory facilities including 6  laboratory sections to determine their status towards of accreditation using WHO AFRO accreditation checklist and 213 laboratory professionals were interviewed to assess their knowledge on quality system essentials and accreditation in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. Results: Out of 30 laboratory facilities 1 private  laboratory scored 156 (62%) points, which is the minimum required point for WHO accreditation and the  least score was 32 (12.8%) points from government laboratory. The assessment finding from each section indicate that 2 Clinical chemistry (55.2% & 62.8%), 2 Hematology (55.2% & 62.8%), 2 Serology (55.2% & 62.8%), 2 Microbiology (55.2 % & 62.4%), 1 Parasitology (62.8%) & 1 Urinalysis (61.6%) sections scored the minimum required point for WHO accreditation. The average score for government laboratories was 78.2 (31.2%) points, of these 6 laboratories were under accreditation process with 106.2 (42.5%) average score, while the private laboratories had 71.2 (28.5%) average score. Of 213 respondents 197 (92.5%) professionals had a knowledge on quality system essentials whereas 155  (72.8%) respondents on accreditation. Conclusion: Although majority of the laboratory professionals had knowledge on quality system and  accreditation, laboratories professionals were not able to practice the quality system properly and most of the laboratories had poor status towards the WHO accreditation process. Thus government as well as stakeholders should integrate accreditation program into planning and health policy.Key words: Accreditation, laboratory, quality, SLMTA, WHO-AFR

Poetics of Power and Construction of Gender Identity in Selected Published Ethiopian Children

This study explores the poetics of power and construction of gender identity in Ethiopian Childre

Symbolic Representation of Nature and Women in Oromo Oral Narratives

The main objective of this study was to explore the link between the symbolization of nature and women in Oromo oral narratives. Its emphasis was on deciphering conceptual associations made between the two entities focusing on metaphors, motifs and discourses. To this end, folk-narratives were gathered from four different zones of Oromia national regional state through fieldwork. Besides, published oral narrative collections of the region are used as secondary data

Management of an emerging pest, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae), with pesticides in eastern Ethiopia

Outbreak of two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, happened on potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) in eastern Ethiopia in 2014 and effective pesticides as part of IPM practice were sought from greenhouse and laboratory experiments at Haramaya University, Ethiopia. The objective of the study was to identify pesticides with the highest efficacy against the mite. Potatoes infested with mites were used in the efficacy trial. Treatments, 9 pesticides and a control, were applied 2 times at weekly intervals. Mites per leaf before and after each spray were counted. Promising pesticides were further screened with leaf-disc spray, and dip methods. Adult mortality was recorded after 24 and 48 hours. Chlorantrniliprole + Lambda-cyhalothrin, Amitraz, Profenofos, Profenofos \u201cQ\u201d 720 g l-1, and Paraffin oil showed superior efficacy on eggs and mobile stages; though Paraffin\u2019s efficacy became clear 14 days later. Paraffin had the lowest mortality in leaf-disc sprays, but better mortality in the leaf-disc dip. This was attributed to complete wetting by the latter. Chlorantrniliprole + lambda-cyhalothrin, Profenofos, Profenofos \u201cQ\u201d and Paraffin were identified as promising pesticides for the two spotted spider mite management on potato.L\u2019explosion de t\ue9tranyque \ue0 deux points, Tetranychus urticae Koch, s\u2019est produite sur la patate ( Solanum tuberosum L.) dans l\u2019Est de l\u2019Ethiopie en 2014 et des pesticides effectifs comme une partie de de pratique IPM a \ue9t\ue9 recherch\ue9e \ue0 partir des exp\ue9rimentations sous serre et au laboratoire \ue0 l\u2019Universit\ue9 de Haramaya, Ethiopie. L\u2019objectif de l\u2019\ue9tude \ue9tait d\u2019identifier les pesticides avec de tr\ue8s grande efficacit\ue9 contre le t\ue9tranyque. Les patates infest\ue9es avec les t\ue9tranyques ont \ue9t\ue9 utilis\ue9es dans un essai d\u2019efficacit\ue9. Les traitements, 9 pesticides et un contr\uf4le, \ue9taient appliqu\ue9s deux fois \ue0 des intervalles d\u2019une semaine. Les t\ue9tranyques par feuille ont \ue9t\ue9 compt\ue9s avant et apr\ue8s chaque traitement. Des pesticidesprometteurs ont \ue9t\ue9 \ue9galement\ue9valu\ue9s avec le pulv\ue9riseur \ue0 disque sur les feuilles, et les m\ue9thodes d\u2019immersion. La mortalit\ue9 de l\u2019adulte\ue9tait evalu\ue9e apr\ue8s 24 et 48 heures. Chlorantrniliprole + Lambda-cyhalothrin, Amitraz, Profenofos, Profenofos \u201cQ\u201d 720 g l-1, et l\u2019huile du Paraffine ont montr\ue9 une efficacit\ue9 sup\ue9rieure sur les \u153ufs, stages mobiles\ua0; quoique l\u2019efficacit\ue9 de paraffine est devenue claire \ue0 14 jours apr\ue8s. Paraffine a eu la plus faible mortalit\ue9 avec le pulv\ue9riseur \ue0 disque sur la feuille, mais meilleure mortalit\ue9 avec l\u2019immersion de la feuille. Ceci a \ue9t\ue9 attribu\ue9 \ue0 la mouillure compl\ue8te de la deuxi\ue8me m\ue9thode. Chlorantrniliprole + lambda-cyhalothrin, Profenofos, profenofos \u201cQ\u201d et Paraffine ont \ue9t\ue9 identifi\ue9s comme pesticide prometteurs, pour la gestion du t\ue9tranyque \ue0 deux points sur la tomate

The Poetics of Oromo Blessing Expressions: A Stylistic Analysis of a Verbal Art Genre

This study argues for the poetics of Oromo blessing expressions through presenting a stylistic analysis of the verbal art genre. It describes the overriding concerns of the blessing expressions, and analyzes the dominant stylistic devices employed. Hence, the study is descriptive and analytical in its approach.The data for the study are obtained both through fieldwork among the people, and review of secondary documents. The framwork of literary stylistics applicable to oral literary texts has been employed to conduct the analysis. The analysis reveals that Oromo blessing expressions exhibit recurrent poetic features at three levels. At phonological level, stylistic devices like rhyme, alliteration, assonace and consonance are dominantly employed to give musical quality to the epressions. At syntactic level, the blessing expressions exhibit recurrent stylistic features like parallelism, anaphora and antithesis as devices for creating literary effect. And at lexico-semantic level, the explication reveals that the verbal art predominantly employs symbols, metaphors, imagery and simile to foreground the ideas addressed in the performance. Based on the analysis conducted, the study argues that this verbal art genre of the Oromo employs rich stylistic devices comparable to the devices a poet employ in the written genre. If given a serious scholarly attention, the treasure with such literary merit will have a significant contribution in the study of Oromo (African) literature

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The Effect of the war on smallholder agriculture in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

AbstractThe war in Tigray (Northern Ethiopia) that started at the beginning of November 2020 has brought devastating damage to smallholder agriculture and food security. However, empirical evidence on the effect of war on smallholder agriculture has not studied systematically. Thus, this research was initiated to address the knowledge gap. A survey was done on selected 4376 households using systematic random sampling. All the data required for the study was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussions and key informant interview. The study revealed that 81% of the smallholder households lost their crop followed by livestock (75%) and farm tools (48%). Overall, 94% of the households reported that at least one of their agricultural components (crop, livestock and farm tools) was looted and/or destroyed by the belligerents. Of which, 37% of the respondent’s crop, livestock and farm tools were totally damaged. Moreover, farmers have limited access to their farms, agricultural inputs, and services. Consequently, more than 5.2 million people are currently in need of immediate humanitarian assistance. To avert the worsening situation, immediate intervention is needed to deliver food and agricultural input supplies and rehabilitate the agricultural extension system and infrastructure

Myths, beliefs, and perceptions about COVID-19 in Ethiopia: A need to address information gaps and enable combating efforts.

BackgroundThe endeavor to tackle the spread of COVID-19 effectively remains futile without the right grasp of perceptions and beliefs presiding in the community. Therefore, this study aimed to assess myths, beliefs, perceptions, and information gaps about COVID-19 in Ethiopia.MethodsAn internet-based survey was conducted in Ethiopia from April 22 to May 04, 2020. The survey link was promoted through emails, social media, and the Jimma University website. Perceptions about COVID-19 have considered the World Health Organization (WHO) resources and local beliefs. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 20.0. Classifications and lists of factors for each thematic perception of facilitators, inhibitors, and information needs were generated. Explanatory factor analysis (EFA) was executed to assist categorizations. Standardized mean scores of the categories were compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-tests. A significant difference was claimed at p-value ResultsA total of 929 responses were gathered during the study period. The EFA generated two main categories of perceived facilitators of COVID-19 spread: behavioral non-adherence (55.9%) and lack of enablers (86.5%). Behavioral non-adherence was illustrated by fear of stigma (62.9%), not seeking care (59.3%), and hugging and shaking (44.8%). Perceived lack of enablers of precautionary measures includes staying home impossible due to economic challenges (92.4%), overcrowding (87.6%), and inaccessible face masks (81.6%) and hand sanitizers (79.1%). Perceived inhibitors were categorized into three factors: two misperceived, myths (31.6%) and false assurances (32.9%), and one correctly identified; engagement in standard precautions (17.1%). Myths about protection from the virus involve perceived religiosity and effectiveness of selected food items, hot weather, traditional medicine, and alcohol drinking, ranging from 15.1% to 54.7%. False assurances include people's perception that they were living far away from areas where COVID-19 was rampant (36.9%), and no locally reported cases were present (29.5%). There were tremendous information needs reported about COVID-19 concerning protection methods (62.6%), illness behavior and treatment (59.5%), and quality information, including responses to key unanswered questions such as the origin of the virus (2.4%). Health workers were perceived as the most at-risk group (83.3%). The children, adolescents, youths were marked at low to moderate (45.1%-62.2%) risk of COVID-19. Regional, township, and access to communication showed significant variations in myths, false assurances, and information needs (p ConclusionsConsidering young population as being at low risk of COVID-19 would be challenging to the control efforts, and needs special attention. Risk communication and community engagement efforts should consider regional and township variations of myths and false assurances. It should also need to satisfy information needs, design local initiatives that enhance community ownership of the control of the virus, and thereby support engagement in standard precautionary measures. All forms of media should be properly used and regulated to disseminate credible information while filtering out myths and falsehoods

Psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia : an online cross-sectional study to identify the need for equal attention of intervention

Background The COVID-19 pandemic led individuals to suffer from different levels of mental health problems such as psychological distress, anxiety, depression, denial, panic, and fear. This study aimed at determining the prevalence of psychological distress and associated factors among the Ethiopian population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed through an online survey using different online platforms. The questionnaire was created through Google Form and the survey link was administered by e-mail, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Facebook. Educated Ethiopian population who have access to the internet were invited to participate through an online survey and addressed to 929 respondents. The study participants completed the survey anonymously without any personal identifier. The psychological distress was assessed using the Kessler 10-item tool to measure psychological distress. Data were analyzed using SPSS and logistic regression to examine mutually adjusted associations, expressed as adjusted odds ratios. A generalized additive model was also employed to identify additional predictors using R. Results The prevalence of high psychological distress among the study population was 236 (25.5%). Of all respondents, 421 (45.1%) had low psychological distress, 274 (29.4%) had moderate psychological distress, 164 (17.6%) had high psychological distress, and 72 (7.3%) had very high psychological distress. Psychological distress increased with being at young and middle-aged adults, getting information from social media, and not correctly practicing infection prevention and control measures to prevent COVID-19 infection. Respondents with high perceived severity had increased psychological distress. On the contrary, those with the highest score of perceived response efficacy had low distress. Conclusion Prevalence of psychological distress was substantial. The need for intervention of psychological distress inline with the prevention of COVID-19 is critically essential. The intervention target groups are those whose information sources are from social media, young and middle-aged adults, and those who do not correctly practice infection prevention and control measures against COVID-19 infection