Prevalence and associated risk factors of intestinal parasitic infections among children in pastoralist and agro-pastoralist communities in the Adadle woreda of the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Intestinal parasitic infections (IPIs) can cause illness, morbidity, and occasional mortality in children. Agro-pastoralist and pastoralist children in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia (ESRS) are especially at risk for IPIs, as access to safe water, sanitation, and health services is lacking. Minimal data on the prevalence of IPIs and associated risk factors exists in this region. METHODOLOGY: We assessed the prevalence of IPIs and associated risk factors during the wet season from May-June 2021 in 366 children aged 2 to 5 years in four agro-pastoralist and four pastoralist kebeles (wards) in Adadle woreda (district) of the Shebelle zone, ESRS. Household information, anthropometric measurements, and stool samples were obtained from included children. Parasites were identified microscopically using Kato-Katz and direct smear methods. Risk factors were assessed using general estimating equation models accounting for clustering. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Overall prevalence of IPIs was 35%: 30.6% for single infections and 4.4% for poly-parasitic infections. Intestinal protozoan prevalence was 24.9%: 21.9% Giardia intestinalis, and 3.0% Entamoeba spp.. Intestinal helminth prevalence was 14.5%: 12.8% Ascaris lumbricoides, 1.4% hookworm (Ancylostoma duodenale /Necator americanus.), and 0.3% Hymenolepis nana. G. intestinalis infection was associated with drinking water sourced from the river (aOR 15.6, 95%CI 6.84, 35.4) and from collected rainwater (aOR 9.48, 95%CI 3.39, 26.5), with toilet sharing (aOR 2.93, 95%CI 1.36, 6.31) and with household ownership of cattle (1-5 cattle: aOR 1.65, 95%CI 1.13, 2.41; 6+ cattle: aOR 2.07, 95%CI 1.33, 3.21) and chickens (aOR 3.80, 95%CI 1.77, 8.17). A. lumbricoides infection was associated with children 36 to 47 months old (aOR 1.92, 95%CI 1.03, 3.58). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Improving access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services in Adadle and employing a One Health approach would likely improve the health of children living in (agro-) pastoralist communities in Adadle and the ESRS; however, further studies are required

Duration of Supplemental Oxygen Requirement and Predictors in Severe COVID-19 Patients in Ethiopia: A Survival Analysis

BACKGROUND፡ With the rising number of new cases of COVID-19, understanding the oxygen requirement of severe patients assists in identifying at risk groups and in making an informed decision on building hospitals capacity in terms of oxygen facility arrangement. Therefore, the study aimed to estimate time to getting off supplemental oxygen therapy and identify predictors among COVID-19 patients admitted to Millennium COVID-19 Care Center in Ethiopia.METHODS: A prospective observational study was conducted among 244 consecutively admitted COVID-19 patients from July to September, 2020. Kaplan Meier plots, median survival times and Log-rank test were used to describe the data and compare survival distribution between groups. Cox proportional hazard survival model was used to identify determinants of time to getting off supplemental oxygen therapy, where hazard ratio (HR), Pvalue and 95%CI for HR were used for testing significance and interpretation of results.RESULTS: Median time to getting off supplemental oxygen therapy among the studied population was 6 days (IQR,4.3-20.0). Factors that affect time to getting off supplemental oxygen therapy were age group (AHR=0.52,95%CI=0.32,0.84, pvalue=0.008 for ≥70 years) and shortness of breath (AHR=0.71,95%CI=0.52,0.96, p-value=0.026).CONCLUSION: Average duration of supplemental oxygen therapy requirement among COVID-19 patients was 6 days and being 70 years and older and having shortness of breath were found to be associated with prolonged duration of supplemental oxygen therapy requirement. This result can be used as a guide in planning institutional resource allocation and patient management to provide a well-equipped care to prevent complications and death from the disease

Lung Abscess as a Complication of Appendicitis

Molla Asnake,1 Suleman Hassen,2 Anteneh Messele,1 Yosef Habtemariam,1 Sisay Mengistu,2 Bizuayehu Tassew,2 Tsegaw Worku,1 Woineab Tadeg1 1Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan Aman, Ethiopia; 2Department of Surgery, College of Health Sciences, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan Aman, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Molla Asnake, Email [email protected]: Appendicitis is an inflammation of the vermiform appendix (located near the base of the cecum). A lung abscess is a cavitary lesion containing necrotic lung tissue or an infected fluid component. It mainly occurs as a result of lung parenchymal disease. The patient was a 25-year-old male who first presented with a 1-week history of productive cough and chest pain associated with low-grade fever. He was diagnosed with a lung abscess as a complication of perforated retro cecal appendicitis. We report this in consideration of reducing the challenge of delay in diagnosis of this rare complication, and to avoid mistreatment specifically when the patient’s chest x-ray resembles empyema. Additionally, we encourage doing further studies on this topic.Keywords: lung abscess, sepsis, perforated appendiciti

Frequency Locking of an Optical Cavity using LQG Integral Control

This paper considers the application of integral Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) optimal control theory to a problem of cavity locking in quantum optics. The cavity locking problem involves controlling the error between the laser frequency and the resonant frequency of the cavity. A model for the cavity system, which comprises a piezo-electric actuator and an optical cavity is experimentally determined using a subspace identification method. An LQG controller which includes integral action is synthesized to stabilize the frequency of the cavity to the laser frequency and to reject low frequency noise. The controller is successfully implemented in the laboratory using a dSpace DSP board.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

AfrOBIS: a marine biogeographic information system for sub-Saharan Africa

AfrOBIS is one of 11 global nodes of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), a freely accessible network of databases collating marine data in support of the Census of Marine Life. Versatile graphic products, provided by OBIS, can be used to display the data. To date, AfrOBIS has loaded about 3.2 million records of more than 23 000 species located mainly in the seas around southern Africa. This forms part of the 13.2 million records of more than 80 000 species currently stored in OBIS. Scouting for South African data has been successful, whereas locating records in other African countries has been much less so

The pathway to genetic gains in Ethiopian dairy Cattle: Lessons learned from African Dairy Genetic Gains Program and tips to ensure sustainability

In recent years, information and communication technology, and genomic tools have respectively enabled crowd-sourced herd performance recording and fastening of genetic gains in dairy cattle. The African dairy cattle genetic gains (ADGG) program is a collaborative effort of International Livestock Research Institute, Livestock Development Institute, and other national and international partners to foster sustainable genetic improvement. The ADGG program has developed and implemented digital herd performance recording tools, national dairy recording platforms, digital extension services, and genomic evaluation pipelines for Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia. The initial program’s target was to register 12,000 dairy herds in each country, however in Ethiopia’s in 98 districts and 6 regions, more than 74,500 herds and 157,000 animals had been registered by July 2022. The volume and diversity of data being captured by national dairy database is steadily growing. For example, today 440,000 test-day milk yield and 313,000 body weight records have been captured. The above data has been used to undertake the first genomic evaluations, results of which have been publicized in the national Cow and Bull Catalogue for the locally bred but genetically superior bulls and cows. Three of the top ranked bulls have been recruited into the National Artificial Insemination (AI) center for broader use nationally. So far, a total of 67,000 semen straws have been extracted from these bulls and are being used to breed cows and heifers in 14 districts of Ethiopia, thereby not only benefiting many local smallholder dairy farmers, but also significantly saving the country foreign exchange which would otherwise have been used to import bulls and semen from outside the country most of bulls may not be as locally adapted and genetically superior. The great achievement has been realized due to existence of systematic animal identification and consistent performance recording, both of which are crucial for sustained national genetic evaluation, identification, and use of genetically superior and locally adapted dairy breeding stock. Furthermore, identifying roles and responsibilities, and strengthening collaboration among key dairy actors and strong government leadership and support are mandatory to build sustainable breeding program

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

SummaryBackground The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 provides an up-to-date synthesis of the evidence for risk factor exposure and the attributable burden of disease. By providing national and subnational assessments spanning the past 25 years, this study can inform debates on the importance of addressing risks in context. Methods We used the comparative risk assessment framework developed for previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease Study to estimate attributable deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and trends in exposure by age group, sex, year, and geography for 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks from 1990 to 2015. This study included 388 risk-outcome pairs that met World Cancer Research Fund-defined criteria for convincing or probable evidence. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from randomised controlled trials, cohorts, pooled cohorts, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. We developed a metric that allows comparisons of exposure across risk factors—the summary exposure value. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk level, we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We decomposed trends in attributable burden into contributions from population growth, population age structure, risk exposure, and risk-deleted cause-specific DALY rates. We characterised risk exposure in relation to a Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Findings Between 1990 and 2015, global exposure to unsafe sanitation, household air pollution, childhood underweight, childhood stunting, and smoking each decreased by more than 25%. Global exposure for several occupational risks, high body-mass index (BMI), and drug use increased by more than 25% over the same period. All risks jointly evaluated in 2015 accounted for 57·8% (95% CI 56·6–58·8) of global deaths and 41·2% (39·8–42·8) of DALYs. In 2015, the ten largest contributors to global DALYs among Level 3 risks were high systolic blood pressure (211·8 million [192·7 million to 231·1 million] global DALYs), smoking (148·6 million [134·2 million to 163·1 million]), high fasting plasma glucose (143·1 million [125·1 million to 163·5 million]), high BMI (120·1 million [83·8 million to 158·4 million]), childhood undernutrition (113·3 million [103·9 million to 123·4 million]), ambient particulate matter (103·1 million [90·8 million to 115·1 million]), high total cholesterol (88·7 million [74·6 million to 105·7 million]), household air pollution (85·6 million [66·7 million to 106·1 million]), alcohol use (85·0 million [77·2 million to 93·0 million]), and diets high in sodium (83·0 million [49·3 million to 127·5 million]). From 1990 to 2015, attributable DALYs declined for micronutrient deficiencies, childhood undernutrition, unsafe sanitation and water, and household air pollution; reductions in risk-deleted DALY rates rather than reductions in exposure drove these declines. Rising exposure contributed to notable increases in attributable DALYs from high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, occupational carcinogens, and drug use. Environmental risks and childhood undernutrition declined steadily with SDI; low physical activity, high BMI, and high fasting plasma glucose increased with SDI. In 119 countries, metabolic risks, such as high BMI and fasting plasma glucose, contributed the most attributable DALYs in 2015. Regionally, smoking still ranked among the leading five risk factors for attributable DALYs in 109 countries; childhood underweight and unsafe sex remained primary drivers of early death and disability in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation Declines in some key environmental risks have contributed to declines in critical infectious diseases. Some risks appear to be invariant to SDI. Increasing risks, including high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, drug use, and some occupational exposures, contribute to rising burden from some conditions, but also provide opportunities for intervention. Some highly preventable risks, such as smoking, remain major causes of attributable DALYs, even as exposure is declining. Public policy makers need to pay attention to the risks that are increasingly major contributors to global burden. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Determination of zearalenone and its metabolites in endometrial cancer by coupled separation techniques

This study presents a selective method of isolation of zearalenone (ZON) and its metabolite, α-zearalenol (α-ZOL), in neoplastically changed human tissue by accelerated solvent and ultrasonic extractions using a mixture of acetonitrile/water (84/16% v/v) as the extraction solvent. Extraction effectiveness was determined through the selection of parameters (composition of the solvent mixture, temperature, pressure, number of cycles) with tissue contamination at the level of nanograms per gram. The produced acetonitrile/water extracts were purified, and analytes were enriched in columns packed with homemade molecularly imprinted polymers. Purified extracts were determined by liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with different detection systems (diode array detection - DAD and mass spectrometry - MS) involving the Ascentis RP-Amide as a stationary phase and gradient elution. The combination of UE-MISPE-LC (ultrasonic extraction - molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction - liquid chromatography) produced high (R ≈ 95–98%) and repeatable (RSD < 3%) recovery values for ZON and α-ZOL