Survey of ethno-veterinary medicinal plants at selected districts of Harari Regional State, Eastern Ethiopia

The survey of ethno-veterinary medicinal plants was conducted from November,2014 to April, 2015 at selected districts of Harari Regional State, eastern Ethiopia.The aim of the study was to identify and document medicinal plants and the associated ethno-medicinal knowledge of the local community. Semi-structured interview, guided field observation, group discussion and market survey were used to collect the required data. Informant consensus method and group discussion wereconducted for crosschecking and verification of the information. Both descriptivestatistics and quantitative methods were used for data analysis. About 46 plantspecies belonging to 33 families were identified and documented based on the localclaims of the plants. Majority plant taxa were collected from the wild (54.4%) followed by domestic once (24%). Among these plant families, Fabaceae, Solanaeceae and Euphorbiaceae were commonly used to treat Equine colic, retained placenta and Black leg respectively. The most frequently used plant parts were reported to be the leaves (37%) and then the roots (30.4%). The condition of preparation was in the fresh form (82.5%) and fresh/dry form (17.5%). Oral  administration (65.3%) was the most common route of administration. In  conclusion, the participants have a wealth of indigenous knowledge about plant medicines for treating their livestock but, agricultural expansion was the major threats to medicinal plants in the study area. Thus, awareness creation should be done in order to conserve and document the plants. Keywords: Ethno-veterinary, Medicinal plants, Indigenous knowledge, HarariRegional Stat

Knowledge and Healthcare Seeking Behavior of Tuberculosis Patients attending Gimbi General Hospital, West Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) now ranks alongside HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) as a leading cause of death worldwide. Globally, 9.6 million people were estimated to have fallen ill with TB in 2014. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge and healthcare seeking behaviour of tuberculosis patents in Gimbi General Hospital, West Ethiopia.METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted among tuberculosis patients from March 8 to April 30, 2015. The data collection method was face-to-face interview through structuredstandard questionnaire. To identify the factors associated with knowledge about TB and healthcare seeking behavior, backward logistic regression analysis was used.RESULTS: Of the 138 TB patients, 85(61.6%) had good knowledge about TB while 53(38.4%) had poor knowledge about TB. On multivariable logistic analysis, poor knowledge about TB was more likely to occur among TB patients in intensive treatment phase (Adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=4.1, 95% CI= 1.7-9.6, p=0.001).CONCLUSION: TB patients had good knowledge on signs and symptoms of TB, transmission of TB and healthcare seeking behaviour of TB, but their knowledge on the cause of TB, treatment of TB and prevention of TB were not adequate. This study also revealed that the health careseeking behaviour of TB patients were good.

Additional file 1: of Availability and affordability of essential medicines for children in the Western part of Ethiopia: implication for access

Medicine Price Data Collection Form. (XLSX 16 kb

Epidemiology of self-medication with modern medicines among health care professionals in Nekemte town, western Ethiopia

Abstract Objective Self-medication is defined as use of medicines to treat self-recognized illnesses. It is widely used in Ethiopia. However, its extent of use is unknown among health professionals. This study aimed to assess prevalence and reasons of self-medication with modern medicines among health professionals. A cross-sectional study was conducted on the health professionals, working in the public health facilities. Data were collected from March to May, 2016 using semi-structured questionnaire. Data were entered and analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences. A chi square test was used as test of significance at 95% of confidence interval. Results A total of 154 health professionals were enrolled, with 53% were being females. The finding revealed that prevalence of self-medication with modern medicines was 67.5%. Financial constraints (32.5%) and familiarity with medicines (24%) were the major reasons of self-medication. It also showed that self-medication with modern medicines was significantly associated with marital status (χ2 = 19.57, P = 0.00). Analgesics (53%) and antibiotics (36%) were the most commonly used categories of medicines. Self-medication with modern medicines was highly practiced among health professionals. Financial constraints and familiarity with medicines were the two major reasons of practicing