Editorial: Millennium Development Goals: Lessons Learnt and the Way Forward

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EDITORIAL: Preparedness to Respond to the Ever-increasing Cancer Cases

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Editorial: Ethiopia successfully attaining the millennium development goals

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Editorial: Ethiopian Journal of Health Sciences Stepping Forward

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Editorial: Minimizing Preventable Deaths: The Should Be Focus In Ethiopian Health System

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EDITORIAL: Is Public Health System in LMICs Ready to Respond to the Ever Growing NCDs?

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Evaluation of pre-service training on integrated management of neonatal and childhood illness in Ethiopia

Background: The Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness strategy equips health workers with essential knowledge and skills to effectively manage sick children with common neonatal and childhood diseases. Since in-service training is very demanding to achieve the desired coverage of training of health workers, pre-service training is taken as a solution. At the time of the survey, most public and some private health professionals’ training institutions were conducting pre-service training. However, several concerns have been expressed on the training. Therefore, this survey was conducted to assess the status of pre-service Integrated Management of New-born and Childhood Illness training. Methods: A cross sectional survey on health professional training institutes/schools to evaluate pre-service Inte-grated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness training was conducted in November 2007. Data was col-lected using pre-tested questionnaires, focused group interviews with teachers and students, observation of stu-dents while managing sick children using Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness guidelines, and reviews of pediatric course outlines and other teaching/learning materials. Data was entered in computer and analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 12.0.1. Results: Twenty nine health professionals’ training institutions (34 academic programs) which have started pre-service training were included in the survey. Of the 34 programs 22 were diploma nursing, 6 Bachelor of Sciences nursing, 4 health officer and the remaining two medicine. Thirty (88.2%) programs have integrated it in their cur-riculum. All academic programs had at least one fulltime staff for Integrated Management of Newborn and Child-hood Illness classroom instruction. Twenty nine (85.3%) programs had staff trained in case management skills. All the 34 academic programs taught health workers skills, 28(82.3%) used mixed approach. Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness was either incorporated for 21 (61.8%) or added to the previous teaching 11 (32.3%). The instructor to student ratio was low for most of the schools. Main challenges encountered in the pre-service teaching were constraints with trained staff and other resources each by 28 (82.3%) programs. Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness was included in student evaluation by all programs (100%). All students and instructors (100%) rated that Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness concept is very relevant or extremely relevant but majority said the time given was short. The over all mean score of students clinical practice was 63.5%. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness was intro-duced into the teaching programs of most health professional training institutions. The most preferred teaching style was the mixed approach. Group discussion and demonstration were commonly used methods and Integrated Management of Newborn and Childhood Illness questions were included in students’ evaluation in almost all pro-grams. Shortage of IMNCI trained staff and teaching materials were major challenges. The use of teaching materi-als prepared for pre-service training like handbook and model chapter was limited. Instructors and students atti-tude towards IMNCI was very good. The students overall performance in managing sick child as per the IMNCI guidelines was above average. We recommend that the respective bodies at every level make every effort to strengthen IMNCI pre-service teaching through revisiting curricula, facilitating staff training, availing teaching materials and allocating adequate time. Exploring for an alternative/innovative and sustainable training approach is an assignment for all

Population Based Survey of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases at Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center, Southwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Chronic Non-communicable Diseases are increasingly becoming more prevalent and burden to the health care system in developing countries including Ethiopia. However, evidences showing the magnitude of the problem in those countries are scarce particularly in a community setting.The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude of chronic non communicable diseases in a community.METHODS: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center from late September 2008 to end of January 2009. A random sample of 4,469 individuals aged 15-64 years was studied. Data on characteristics and chronic symptom inventories were collected by interviewing study participants. Blood pressure was taken three times from each individual and blood sugar and lipid levels were determined after an overnight fasting. Data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 16.0 and STATA 11.RESULTS: The overall prevalence of CNCD was 8.9% (7.8% men and 9.8% women). The specific observed prevalence were 0.5% for diabetes mellitus (DM), 2.6% for hypertension, 3.0% for cardiovascular diseases, 1.5% for asthma and 2.7% for mental illness. In addition 3.1% and 9.3% of the study population had been informed to have DM and hypertension respectively.CONCLUSION: There is a high prevalence of CNCD among the study population indicating an immediate need for preventive action and also warrant further nationally representative study.Keywords: CNCD, Non-communicable, Prevalence, Southwest Ethiopi

The WHF Roadmap for Reducing CV Morbidity and Mortality Through Prevention and Control of Rheumatic Heart Disease.

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a preventable non-communicable condition that disproportionately affects the world's poorest and most vulnerable. The World Heart Federation Roadmap for improved RHD control is a resource designed to help a variety of stakeholders raise the profile of RHD nationally and globally, and provide a framework to guide and support the strengthening of national, regional and global RHD control efforts. The Roadmap identifies the barriers that limit access to and uptake of proven interventions for the prevention and control of RHD. It also highlights a variety of established and promising solutions that may be used to overcome these barriers. As a general guide, the Roadmap is meant to serve as the foundation for the development of tailored plans of action to improve RHD control in specific contexts

COP27 climate change conference: urgent action needed for Africa and the world

The 2022 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) paints a dark picture of the future of life on earth, characterised by ecosystem collapse, species extinction, and climate hazards such as heatwaves and floods.1 These are all linked to physical and mental health problems, with direct and indirect consequences of increased morbidity and mortality. To avoid these catastrophic health effects across all regions of the globe, there is broad agreement—as 231 health journals argued together in 2021—that the rise in global temperature must be limited to less than 1.5oC compared with pre-industrial levels