Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Voluntary Blood Donation and Associated Factors among Residents of Birbir Town, Southern Ethiopia

Blood transfusion is a medical procedure that is designed to provide patients who need blood or blood products to correct a defect. Secure supply of safe blood components, based on voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation is an important national goal to prevent blood shortages. Now a day, in many low- and middle-income countries, blood supply is critically inadequate. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of voluntary blood donation and associated factors among adults of Birbir town residents. Community based cross sectional study design was employed among residents of Birbir town with 387 samples from July 1- 30, 2016. After proportional allocation to size to each of 4 villages, systematic sampling method was used to select households. Data was collected from all villages by investigators using standard questionnaire. Finally data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20 software. About 144 (38.3%),  170 (45.2%)  and 40 (10.6%) of respondents have adequate knowledge,  favorable attitude  and donated blood respectively. Educational status and occupation were determinants of knowledge, age and knowledge were determinants of attitude and  attitude was the only determinant of practice of voluntary blood donation. This study revealed that the prevalence of knowledge, attitude and practice of voluntary blood donation is low . There is a need to design and implement awareness creation program on blood donation. Offices of blood banks in the country, health offices and other stake holders should organize educational campaigns to build community awareness, positive attitude and boost voluntary blood donation among the communities. Keywords: knowledge; attitude; practice; voluntary blood donation; Birbir; Southern Ethiopia; factor

Assessment of Antibiotic Utilization Pattern in Treatment of Acute Diarrhoea Diseases in Bishoftu General Hospital, Oromia Ethiopia

Background. Majority of acute diarrhoeal diseases are self-limiting and do not require routine treatment. Treatment with empirical antimicrobials is recommended only for dysenteric and invasive bacterial diarrhoea. Irrational use of antibiotics in treatment of acute diarrhoea is common in clinical practice worldwide. This study was carried out to assess the pattern of antibiotic use for acute diarrhoeal diseases in Bishoftu General Hospital, East Shewa Ethiopia. Methods and Materials. Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1 to April 30, 2016. Data were collected retrospectively from patients treated for diarrhoeal diseases from January 2015 to December 2015 using structured questionnaires and entered into SPSS (IBM 20) and descriptive statistics was carried out. Results. Among the 303 patients, 51.2% were males and 48.8% were females. Of them, 62% were children under five years. Two hundred sixty three (86.8%) patients received eight different types of antibiotics and cotrimoxazole (178 patients, 58.7%) was the most prescribed antibiotics, followed by ciprofloxacin (33, 10.9%) and amoxicillin (14, 4.6%). Based on the presence of blood in stools, 14.5% of cases were of invasive bacterial type. According to the recommendations of WHO, the rate of overuse of antibiotics was 72.3%. Conclusion. This study revealed that there was high overuse of antibiotics for both adults and children under five with acute diarrhoea in Bishoftu General Hospital. And Cotrimoxazole was the most prescribed antibiotic

Assessment of Anti-TB Drug Nonadherence and Associated Factors among TB Patients Attending TB Clinics in Arba Minch Governmental Health Institutions, Southern Ethiopia

Background. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Nonadherence to anti-TB treatment may result in the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB, prolonged infectiousness, and poor tuberculosis treatment outcomes. Ethiopia is one of the seven countries that reported lower rates of treatment success (84%). This study assessed anti-TB drug nonadherence and associated factors among TB patients in Arba Minch governmental health institutions. Methods. An institution based cross-sectional study design was conducted from April 15 to May 30, 2017. A systematic sampling technique was employed to select the study subjects. Data was collected using a semistructured questionnaire with Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS-8) and was entered, cleaned, and analyzed in SPSS version 20. Results. The study included 271 TB patients with a response rate of 96.4%; 58.3% were males and 64.9% were Gamo by ethnicity. The overall nonadherence was 67 (24.7%) (CI = 20.0–30.4). Nonadherence was high if the patients experienced side effects (AOR = 13.332; 95% CI = 2.282–77.905), were far from the health facility (AOR = 21.830; 95% CI = 0.054–77.500), and experienced prolonged waiting time to get medical services (AOR = 14.260; 95% CI = 2.135–95.241). Conclusions. The proportion of TB patients that did not adhere to anti-TB drugs was high in Arba Minch governmental health institutions