Survival analysis of patients under chronic HIV-care and antiretroviral treatment at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: Health care planning depends upon good knowledge of prevalence that requires a clear understanding of survival patterns of patients who receive medication, treatment and care. Survival analysis can bring to light the effect that some demographic, social, medical and clinical characteristics have on the mortality rate of HIV-patients.Objectives: The objective of this research undertaking was to estimate mortality rate and identify predictors that have significant impact on the survival status of a sample of patients who received antiretroviral treatment and care in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Methods: The data for this research were collected during the follow-up time from 2005 to 2008. Out of a population of HIV-patients who were taking antiretroviral therapy in the hospital in that period, data on 1,000 patients were used for this study. The study subjects were people in the age range from 15 to 75 years. The Kaplan-Meier Method was employed to estimate mortality; the Cox Proportional Hazards Regression Method was used to identify determinants of mortality.Results: After initiation of the antiretroviral treatment, HIV-positive patients lived for an average of 5.65 years (CI: 3.69-7.61 years); the median survival age was found to be 3.98 years (CI: 2.98-4.97 years). The number of medications, baseline functional status, CD4 count, antiretroviral treatment, age, gender and weight impact the survival experience of the patients.Conclusions: Antiretroviral therapy treatment reduced death among AIDS patients by 50 percent. Providing treatment at health facilities outside big towns and in the country should be given due attention. Similar studies in the future need to consider predictors in addition to those considered in this study. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2012;26(1):22-29

Assessment of production and marketing system of goats in Dale District, Sidama Zone

Production system and marketing study was undertaken using on 120 sample households to identify and describing goat production systems, to determine production potentials, opportunities and challenges of goat’s production and to describe marketing systems. Three The households were drawn from different location and represented three agro-ecologies; Moist Weyina Dega, Dega and Moist Kola. Sampled households were interviewed on socio economic characteristics, flock structure, reproductive performances of goats, feed resources and feeding, routine husbandry management systems and marketing using a pre-tested formal questionnaire. Flock monitoring to identify off take and acquisitions like birth, purchase, transfer and disposal like sales, slaughter, death was carried out for about seven months (September to March). Three primary, one secondary and one terminal markets were studied at Dale, Tula and Hawasa, respectively using Rapid Marketing Appraisal (RMA) technique. The average family size was 7.5± . 247 per household, out of which 5.6% of the households were females and there was no significant difference (p<0.05) in family size among the three-agro ecologies. About 75 % of interviewed male households and 50% female households were literate. The overall mean livestock holdings was 13.1 ±1.16. Among the three-agro ecologies, the average livestock holdings in Moist Kola was significantly higher than in Moist Weyina Dega and Dega. The overall mean goat holdings per household was 5.98 and there is a wider range of variations in flock sizes in agro-ecologies??. The overall mean AWA, AFM, AFK, AKI, was 5.2, 9.7, 14.9, 8.6 and 16 months, respectively. Overall mean litter size was 2.07 and lifetime kidding age (parity) was 13.2 months. AWA in Moist Dega was 6.47± 45 , and was significantly longer (p<0.05) than in Moist Weyina Dega and Moist Kola. Similarly, the average AFM was 16.13 months in Moist Dega, and was significantly longer (P<0.05) than in Moist Kola but. Moist Weyina Dega was intermediate of the two-agro ecologies. AKI was 8.56, 7.27 and 8.57 months in Moist Dega, Moist Weyina Dega and Moist Kola, respectively and varied significant (P<0.05) among the three agro ecologies. Mean LS for Moist Kola and Moist Weyina Dega was significantly(p<0.05) lower than that of Moist Dega. Goats in Moist Kola have shown long lifetime kidding or parity (P) of 16.27 years, which is significantly longer (P<0.05) than that of the other two agroecologies. Feed resources for goats varied among agro ecologies. Shrubs and trees are the major feed sources for free foraging goats in the Moist Kola but, feeds from crop by products, crop residues, enset and fruit parts, vegetables and chat leftovers are the main feed sources for tethered and herded goats of Moist Weyina Dega and Dega. Lack of feed, diseases and marketing are the major constraints affecting goat’s production. The increasing demand for goat meat, the awareness of rural goat herder about the current price and willingness and attempt to carry out small scale goat fattening activities to utilize the current goat market, the conduciveness of the environment and sufficient man power in the three agro ecologies are the encouraging opportunities to improve goats production and marketing

Ethyl 5-oxo-2,3-diphenyl­cyclo­pentane-1-carboxyl­ate

The title compound, C20H20O3, was prepared by an acyl­oin-type condensation reaction in the presence of sodium sand and dry ether using ethyl cinnamate as the starting material. The C—O bond lengths for the carbonyl groups are 1.191 (2) and 1.198 (2) Å, while the C—O bond in the ester group is 1.335 (2) Å. The C—C bond lengths in the phenyl groups average 1.375 Å, while the C—C bonds in the cyclo­penta­none ring average 1.525 Å, indicating single C—C bonds in the latter

Men's involvement in family planning service utilization among married men in Kondala district, western Ethiopia: a community-based comparative cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Men involvement is one of the important factors in family planning (FP) service utilization. Their limitation in the family planning program causes a decrease in service utilization as well as the discontinuation of the method which eventually leads to failure of the program. Family planning uptake is low but there is no enough study conducted on the parameters of husband involvement in Ethiopia. Hence, this study focused to assess men's involvement in family planning service utilization in Kondala district, western Ethiopia. METHODS: Community based comparative cross-sectional study design was employed in urban and rural kebeles of kondala district using quantitative and qualitative data collection tools. The multi-stage sampling method was employed to select 370 participants from each of the four urban and eight rural kebeles. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify variables that affect husbands' involvement in FP service utilization. Statistical significance was declared at p-value of < 0.05 with 95% confidence interval (CI) and strength of association was reported by odds ratio (OR). RESULTS: The study showed that 203(55.6%) men from urban and 178(48.8%) from rural were involved in FP service utilization. The median age of the respondents was 36+ 8.5 years (IQR: 27.5-44.5) in urban and 35 years (IQR: 25-45) in rural parts. Respondents who had four and above current children (AOR = 3.25, 95%CI = 1.51-7.02) in urban and (AOR = 4.20, 95%CI = 1.80-9.79) in rural were positively associated with men's involvement in FP service utilization. In the urban setting, being government employee (AOR = 2.58, 95%CI = 1.25-5.33), wishing less than two children (AOR = 3.08, 95%CI = 1.80-5.24) and having a better attitude towards FP methods (AOR = 1.86, 95%CI = 1.16-2.99) were positively associated with FP service utilization. While good educational background (AOR = 2.13, 95%CI = 1.02-4.44), short distance from home to health facility (AOR = 2.29, 95%CI = 1.24-4.19) and having better knowledge (AOR = 4.49, 95%CI = 2.72-7.38) were positively associated with men involvement in FP service utilization in the rural area. CONCLUSION: Low involvement of men in family planning service utilization was reported in both settings. Factors associated with husbands' involvement were varied between the two setups, except for the current number of children. Future FP program should incorporate infrastructure associated with the health facility, knowledge, and attitudinal factors

A Modeling Approach to Determine the Impacts of Land Use and Climate Change Scenarios on the Water Flux of the Upper Mara River

With the flow of the Mara River becoming increasingly erratic especially in the upper reaches, attention has been directed to land use change as the major cause of this problem. The semi-distributed hydrological model Soil and Water Assessment Tool 5 (SWAT) and Landsat imagery were utilized in the upper Mara River Basin in order to 1) map existing field scale land use practices in order to determine their impact 2) determine the impacts of land use change on water flux; and 3) determine the impacts of rainfall (0%, ±10% and ±20%) and air temperature variations (0% and +5%) based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections on the water flux of the 10 upper Mara River. This study found that the different scenarios impacted on the water balance components differently. Land use changes resulted in a slightly more erratic discharge while rainfall and air temperature changes had a more predictable impact on the discharge and water balance components. These findings demonstrate that the model results 15 show the flow was more sensitive to the rainfall changes than land use changes. It was also shown that land use changes can reduce dry season flow which is the most important problem in the basin. The model shows also deforestation in the Mau Forest increased the peak flows which can also lead to high sediment loading in the Mara River. The effect of the land use and climate change scenarios on the sediment and 20 water quality of the river needs a thorough understanding of the sediment transport processes in addition to observed sediment and water quality data for validation of modeling results

In vivo anti-malarial activity of hydroalcoholic extracts from Asparagus africanus Lam. in mice infected with Plasmodium berghei

Background: Malaria is a major public health problem in the world in general and developing countries in particular, causing an estimated 1-2 million deaths per year, an annual incidence of 300-500 million clinical cases and more than 2 billion people are at risk of infection from it. But it is also becoming more difficult to treat malaria due to the increasing drug resistance. Therefore, the need for alternative drugs is acute. Objective: The This study aims at investigating the in vivo antiplasmodial activity of extracts of the roots and area parts from traditionally used medicinal plant, named Asparagus africanus (Liliaceae). Methods: A rodent malaria parasite, Plasmodium berghei, which was maintained at the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI) laboratory, was inoculated into Swiss albino mice. The mice were infected with 1x107 parasites intraperitoneally. The extracts were administered by an intra gastric tube daily for four days starting from the day of parasite inoculation. The control groups received the same amount of solvent (vehicle) used to suspend each dose of the herbal drug. Chloroquine was used as a standard drug, and was administered through the same route. Results: Extracts from the roots and aerial parts of A.africanus were observed to inhibit Plasmodium berghei parasitaemia in the Swiss albino mice by 46.1% and 40.7% respectively. Conclusion: The study could partly confirm the claim in Ethiopian traditional medicine that the plant has therapeutic values in human malaria. There is, thus, the need to initiate further in-depth investigation by using different experimental models. The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development Vol. 20 (2) 2006: 112-11

Evaluation of Morphometric Differences among Indigenous Chicken Populations in Bale Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

The study was conducted in five selected districts in Bale zone South East, Ethiopia to evaluate the morphometric difference among indigenous chicken populations. Simple random sampling method was used to select 400 households who owned indigenous chicken population. From these households, a total of 840 adult (more than 6 months of age) indigenous chickens (225 males and 615 females) were used for morphometric traits measurements. Linear measurements were taken to the nearest of 0.5 cm and body weight was recorded at a precision scale of 100 g. Multivariate variance analysis was used to determine major traits that differentiate chicken population. Canonical discriminant multivariate statistical analysis was conducted for more powerful traits comparisons. Stepwise discriminant analysis was conducted to check the discriminating power of the traits. Pairwise Mahalanobis analysis was carried out to see the distance between indigenous chicken in the study districts. The study revealed that there were significant variations in morphometric traits across the study districts except shank circumference and wing span in hens and shank length, comb height, comb length, beak length and wattle length in cocks. There were significant variations in linear body measurements between sexes. Pairwise Mahalanobis distances between indigenous chicken between most of study districts were significant. Generally, there were morphological traits variations observed among the indigenous chicken populations across the study districts and between sexes, which suggest that there is an opportunity for genetic improvement through selection. Thus, farmers should get technical supports how to select best indigenous chicken for breeding purpose and formulation of breeding plan should be implemented to conserve indigenous chicken genetic resources for genetic improvement strategies